\l LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 












// <=J* 



\t UNITED STATES OF AMEHIC-Wl 



THE TRIAL OF JOB. 



y 



THE 



Trial of Job 



SILAS H. DURAND. 



" Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord." 
James v. ii. 



'» 



/ 

PHILADELPHIA 
J. B. LI PPI NCOTT & CO 

1870. 



-£tM4l5 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1869, by 

J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO., 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the Eastern 
District of Pennsylvania. 



LIPPIROOTT'S PRESS, 
PHILADELPHIA. 



TO 



ALL WHO LOVE THE TRUTH 



THIS WORK IS 



AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED. 



CONTENTS. 



I. Introduction. 9 

II. First Answer of Job 16 

III. Answer of Eliphaz 28 

IV. Second Answer of Job 43 

V. First Answer of Bildad 56 

VI. Third Answer of Job 62 

VII. First Answer of Zophar 75 

VIII. Fourth Answer of Job 81 

IX. Second Answer of Eliphaz 100 

X. Fifth Answer of Job 106 

XI. Sixth Answer of Job 122 

XII. Second Answer of Zophar 134 

XIII. Seventh Answer of Job , , 137 

XIV. Third Answer of Eliphaz 143 

XV. Eighth Answer of Job 150 

XVI. Third Answer of Bildad 155 

XVII. Conclusion of Job's Parable 157 

XVIII. Elihu's Answer 177 

XIX. The Answer of the Lord out of the Whirl- 
wind 209 

XX. The Humility, Restoration and Exaltation 

of Job 254 

XXI. Conclusion 259 



^^jfegflS 



The Trial of Job. 



i. 



INTRODUCTION. 



CHAPTER I. 

There was a man in the land of Uz whose name 
was yob. 

From among all the millions then inhabiting the earth 
whose names are never mentioned in the Scriptures, this 
one man is chosen by the divine historian for especial 
attention, and the events and sayings of a portion of his 
life are minutely recorded. Like all Scripture given by 
inspiration, this record is " profitable for doctrine, for 
reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, 
that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished 
unto all good works." 

It is my purpose to examine the experience of Job as 
expressed by himself while under his severe trial, and 
the controversy that arose between him and his three 
friends, keeping in view the divine assurance that he 
was perfect and upright, and that he spake of God the 
thing that is right, while his friends did not ; to show 
how he truthfully expresses the condition of mind result- 



IO THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

ing from an experimental knowledge of the sinfulness 
of our nature ; and to contemplate the doctrine of God 
our Saviour so clearly presented through his parable, 
and made to appear more distinct and luminous by con- 
trast with the errors raised up against him. The more 
fully we examine, the more clearly shall we see the per- 
fect harmony existing between the declarations of Job 
and the experience of the saints as described in other 
portions of the sacred Word, and as expressed by them 
in all ages to the present time ; the more clearly also 
shall we see comprehended in the speeches of his three 
friends the elements of all false doctrine concerning 
salvation. 

I trust I have evidence that the Lord has directed me 
by his Spirit to write upon this subject. If so, then I 
may feel an assurance that he will guide me into the 
truth, and that some of his dear children will receive 
instruction and comfort through my labor. It is for 
them only, wherever they may be, and whatever their 
name and connection in the world, that I can write ; 
they only are able, by a like experience, to understand 
the trials and complaints of Job, to see the doctrine that 
pervades and harmonizes his apparently conflicting ex- 
pressions, and, as "wise men," to "judge what I say." 
i Cor. x. 15. 

As we contemplate his character and condition, Job 
will appear as a type of the Church. It is undoubtedly 
as such that he is presented to our view, and so much 
only of his history is related as makes the figure com- 
plete. All that we are told of Melchisedec is but what 
is necessary to present in our view of him a type of the 
royal priesthood of Christ. So it is but a small portion 
of the life of Job as a man that is brought intimately to 



INTR OD UC TION. 1 1 

our view, but in that portion we have as perfect a type 
of the Church, entering and extending through her state 
of legal bondage into gospel liberty, as in the history 
and Psalms of David we have of Christ as the Captain 
of our salvation. It is, however, by his words that this 
theory is to be clearly justified, and it is here I design 
to dwell most particularly. Every type of the Church 
must have its counterpart, as it were, in miniature, in 
every member of the Church ; and in manifesting by 
their light this individual likeness, the Scriptures through 
all their types give assurance of hope and comfort to the 
saints. If we are children of God, we shall find in Job's 
declarations what we have experienced, and what, by 
the concordant testimony of other Scriptures, we shall 
know to be the truth. 

I will not attempt a particular discussion of what is 
related in the first and second chapters, but will briefly 
allude to the events that lead to the point at which I 
propose to begin a more particular examination of the 
text. 

The brief introduction of Job is remarkable, contain- 
ing only that which is necessary in the typical design. 
The name of Uz, the land where he dwelt, signifies 
counsel or word, and his own name signifies sorrowful, 
hated, fighting ; and this may be the spiritual interpre- 
tation : that in the counsel and word of God he stands 
before us as a representation of that Church which in 
the world is in the furnace of affliction, full of sorrow, 
hated by the world, and fighting the good fight of faith 
against the enemies of the truth. 

And that man was perfect and upright, and one 
that feared God, and eschewed evil. This could only 
be true of any of the fallen sons of Adam as connected 



12 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

with or figuratively representing the Church, which is 
perfect in Christ, and within every member of which 
God has placed his fear, that they shall not depart from 
him. Jer. xxxii. 40. 

The number of his sons, seven, may signify the per- 
fection of the number of Zion's children. 

Now there was a day when the sons of God came 
to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan 
came also among them. We need not try to imagine a 
particular number of people gathering to a particular 
locality literally, with Satan in a bodily presence among 
them. Considering Job as representing the Church, 
these, in the spiritual significance of the subject, would 
represent the individual members. Though each is a 
component part of the Church, yet that Church is pre- 
sented as a perfect body to the contemplation of each. 
If we have known how Satan is present with his tempt- 
ations when we seek the presence of the Lord, we have 
an intimation of what is presented here. Though he is 
manifest to us only by doubts and evil thoughts, which 
we are inclined to regard as our own, and as evidences 
that we are not sons of God, yet he is manifest to the 
Lord, can be addressed by him, and can do but what he 
permits. The Lord calls him to consider the perfection 
and uprightness of his servant Job, that there is none 
like him in the earth; this last expression proving him 
to be a type of the Church. But Satan declares that it 
is because God has hedged him about with blessings 
that he fears and serves him, and that should these now 
be taken away he would curse God to his face. This 
declaration of Satan is the expression of a doubt that 
the saints sometimes recognize in themselves, fear- 
ing, while in spiritual and temporal prosperity, that 



INTRODUCTION. 13 

their faith would not be strong enough to endure 
affliction. 

The trial which this Satanic doubt suggests is per- 
mitted to be made, and suddenly Job becomes a poor, 
desolate mourner. But he holds fast his integrity. 
Then yob arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his 
headland fell down upon the ground, and worshiped, 
and said, Naked came I out of my mother's womb, 
and naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave, 
and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name 
of the Lord I 

The earth is our natural mother. Out of her bosom 
we came, and so shall we return, " for dust thou art, 
and unto dust shalt thou return ;" and we can carry 
nothing of all the earthly riches or friends that God has 
bestowed upon us here, with us when we go. The light 
of life which God has given to his people shows them 
this, and makes them submissive therefore to his will 
spiritually. The trial fails, so far as the design of Satan 
is concerned, but it accomplishes the end of the Lord, 
by displaying the endurance of his work. 

In all this yob sinned not with his lips, nor charged 
God foolishly. 



CHAPTER II. 

Again there was a day when the sons of God came 
to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan 
came also among them to present himself before the 
Lord. The fact that it was only with the sons of God 
that Satan presented himself before the Lord, and 
nothing more is said concerning them, seems to sustain 



1 4 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

the idea that there is shown here his presence in their 
temptations to doubt and fear. He comes from going 
to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and 
down in it ; for, " as a roaring lion, he walketh about, 
seeking whom he may devour." i Peter v. 8. 

And the Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou consid- 
ered my servant Job, that there is none like him in 
the earth, a perfect and an upright man, and one 
that fear eth God, and escheweth evil? and still he 
holdeth fast his integrity, although thou movedst me 
against him, to destroy him without cause. But Satan 
still denies the simple power of the truth, declaring 
that the preservation of his physical comfort is the cause 
of his continued service to God. But put forth thy 
hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he 
will curse thee to thy face. So we are still tempted to 
fear that other and greater trials than those we have 
had would destroy our hope, and cause us to turn away 
from our confidence in the truth of God. 

And the Lord said unto Satan, Behold, he is in 
thy hand; but save his life. And now the Church is 
to be presented as in the furnace of affliction fully 
heated, to be tried as gold and refined as silver. Zech. 
xiii. 9. 

The peculiar affliction chosen is appropriate to the 
object of the type. Job is smitten with sore boils,from 
the sole of his foot u?ito his crown, and represents the 
condition of the conscious sinner, the people of God in 
their fallen state, " full of wounds and bruises and putri- 
fying sores," "from the sole of the foot even unto the 
head." Isa. i. 6. 

If Satan had chosen to inflict a wound by striking, 
or torturing with fire literally, it would not have suited 



INTRODUCTION. 15 

the figure. He but brings out the corruptions of the 
flesh, hidden from the sight and feeling before, but now- 
causing most bitter pain and anguish, and covering him 
with shame, so that he sits down among the ashes. 

Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still retain 
thine integrity? Curse God, and die. This is all the 
reference that is made to his wife in the history. We 
do not know her name, nor is it necessary. We are 
only to know her as bone of his bone, and flesh of his 
flesh, and therefore in her speech representing the rebel- 
lious opposition of our carnal nature to the ways of God. 
The triumphant power of that faith that is the subject 
of trial is asserted in the memorable reply of Job : 
Thou speak est as one of the foolish women speaketh. 
What I shall we receive good at the hand of God, and 
shall we not receive evil? In all this did not fob sin 
with his lips. 

Now Job's three friends, having heard of the evil that 
had come upon him, came to comfort him. Concern- 
ing them we will speak particularly hereafter, when by 
their w r ords they shall have begun to disclose their 
character ; noting here, however, for careful remem- 
brance, that they came every one from his own place. 

So they sat down with him upon the ground seven 
days and seven nights, and none spake a word unto 
him ; for they saw that his grief was very great. 



II. 

FIRST ANSWER OF JOB. 



CHAPTER III. 

After this opened yob his mouth, and cursed his 
day. And yob spake and said, Let that day perish 
iv herein I was born, and the night in which it was 
said, There is a ?na?i-child conceived. 

We have been accustomed to regard this as very 
extravagant and indefensible in Job, and, although indi- 
cating extreme misery, yet not at all consistent with the 
perfection and patience that are attributed to him. The 
truth is, that he, still holding fast his integrity, is now 
uttering words that truly and fully express the great 
grief and pain which are upon him. Let us consider 
his and our case. The curse of God because of trans- 
gression is upon all the race of Adam. Man, therefore, 
by nature is totally depraved and abominable in the 
sight of God. But being totally corrupt, he does not 
see himself so. Could he discern his own condition, it 
would prove that there was a principle of soundness in 
him, for that power or faculty by which evil is recog- 
nized and felt must itself be good : it is indeed by the 
spirit of holiness alone thak sin can be detected. So 
man is represented as dead in trespasses and sins — in- 
sensible as the dead of his condition ; well pleased, 

16 



THE FIRST ANSWER OF JOB. 1 7 

therefore, with himself, and with no doubt of his ability 
to please God. Paul represents himself thus when he 
says, " I was alive without the law once." Rom. vii. 9. 
He had not yet received that holy principle of eternal 
life which " is the gift of God through Jesus Christ our 
Lord," and was, therefore, unconscious of his sinful 
state. " But when the commandment came," when the 
quickening power of God was applied to his soul, then 
with a new spiritual sight, that discerns all sin and de- 
pravity, he could look upon himself as he appears in 
the sight of a holy God, and witness with loathing and 
dismay his own death in sin. 

This is the case with all the elect or Church of God, 
who " are by nature children of wrath even as others." 
Eph. ii. 3. They are unconscious of their vileness. 
Satisfied with their own imagined beauty, and confident 
that God is well pleased with them. But when the 
quickening word of God, sharper than any two-edged 
sword, pierces them, then they first feel the power of 
that death spiritually, the terror of that awful curse, 
which they have all the time been lying under since the 
fall. Then, under the awful rebukes that fall upon 
them from Sinai, under the dreadful chastenings of the 
Almighty, their beauty consumes away like a moth 
(Ps. xxxix. 11), and they find no soundness in their 
flesh. Ps. xxxviii. 7 ; Rom. vii. 18. 

Here is the condition represented by Job as, covered 
with sore boils, after seven days and nights of silent 
grief, he opened his mouth and cursed his day. We 
might think there was an inconsistency here in the" 
theory, since the previous state of the awakened sinner 
was that of guilt, while Job was before this perfect ; but 
we must remember that it is the Church in her whole 
2* B 



1 8 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

history of which we regard Job as the type, and not the 
individual, until he comes into manifestation as a mem- 
ber of that Church, which is not until he is quickened. 
We consistently now, therefore, behold him as repre- 
senting the conscious sinner, in representing, as we 
shall hereafter show that he does, the condition of the 
Church under the legal dispensation. Let us remem- 
ber, however, that we did not cease to be sinners as 
natural men, our corrupt natures did not cease to be 
corrupt, when we obtained a hope in Christ ; neither 
did we then cease to feel self-abhorrence. What fol- 
lower of Christ has been without great and often inex- 
pressible grief on account of sin since the time when 
he first found peace in believing ? Trouble of that kind, 
more or less heavy, must be with us till we put off this 
earthly tabernacle. Our Saviour declares it to be an 
essential mark of his disciples that they hate their own 
lives. Luke xiv. 26. 

We have never been able to express our pain and 
grief under the burden of sin, when experiencing the 
power of the curse, except by sighs and " groanings 
which cannot be uttered." But Job, to represent the 
Church, was enabled to give it full expression. We 
sometimes have great heaviness of heart and deep 
gloom of mind ; if called upon to picture in language 
the feeling that we so name, could we do it? We can 
say that we mourn or that we have sorrow, but can we 
give that mourning, or sorrow, or heaviness itself an 
appropriate language by which it shall be uttered, and 
tell definitely the desires of the burdened soul ? 

You who now walk wearily, with your head bowed 
as a bulrush and a look of gloom upon your face, the 
Scriptures alone can suit words of expression to your 



THE FIRST ANSWER OF JOB. 19 

trouble. You may not as yet even know its cause. It 
is not loss of friends or worldly misfortune, nor are you 
conscious of having committed any crime in act, yet 
there is a sense as of guilt and condemnation so great 
that sometimes the greatest criminal, whose crime you 
abhor and never had a temptation to commit, appears 
more deserving than you. But only by a groan can you 
come near any adequate expression of your feeling or 
picture of your desires. You only know that heavy 
oppression is upon you and deep, leaden gloom around 
you. You look over your life and it is dark, dark. 
You try all you have ever thought or done, and all is 
dark, dark ; nothing good ; no light or cheer in the 
past or future or about your present. 

It may not have occurred to you that the language of 
Job when he cursed his day would suit you well. Yet 
you have condemned your day, your life ; have felt its 
less than worthlessness — its sinfulness and depravity ; ' 
have hated and abhorred it ; have acknowledged in 
your feelings the justice of God's hatred, his curse pro- 
nounced upon it ; and in all this have yourself cursed 
your day, the unholiness and darkness of which the 
light of truth has shown you. This darkness is not 
merely upon the present of your life, but it so reaches 
backward into the mist of obscurity that you have to 
say, " Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did 
my mother conceive me." Ps. li. 5. 

Let that day be darkness; let not God regard it 
from above, neither let the light shine upon it. Let 
darkness and the shadow of death stain it; let a 
cloud dwell upon it; let the blackness of the day ter- 
rify it. 

I understand Job in all this to have truly expressed 



20 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

the experience of the curse of God making his day 
darkness and terror, the self-abhorrence which a full 
sense of sin produces, and the extreme pain and bitter- 
ness of soul under it. Each one of the saints is not 
conscious of all this suffering, but some appear to have 
felt it most fully, so as to have made these utterances 
of pain and longing for the silence of death theirs ; and 
considering Job as representing the full experience of 
the whole Church under the weight of its corruption in 
the Adamic head, giving full voice to the grief and 
terror which the sense of sin must produce in the 
whole body, we shall not find his words inappropriately 
strong. 

Job is not alone among scriptural characters in curs- 
ing his day. Jeremiah gave similar utterance to the 
violence of his sorrow, saying, " Cursed be the day 
wherein I was born : let not the day wherein my mother 
bare me be blessed." Jer. xx. 14-18. 

These are not the expressions of faith, as were Job's 
words at the first, when as yet he had not sinned with 
his lips nor charged God foolishly, but of suffering oc- 
casioned by sin. Their character as obnoxious to God's 
reproof will be considered hereafter, in connection with 
Elihu's answer and the answer of the Lord out of the 
whirlwind. My object now is to show here the com- 
mon experience of God's people. If we are true fol- 
lowers of Christ, we have experienced that feeling con- 
cerning ourselves which our Saviour intended when he 
said, "Except a man hate his own life, he cannot be my 
disciple." In that sense we have hated our own life, 
and the feeling of hatred and extreme abhorrence, if 
fully expressed, would be in cursing. What we hate 
we essentially curse. 



THE FIRST ANSWER OF JOB. 21 

While we may not have thought that our mind was 
ever in such a condition of violence and extremity of 
grief as is denoted by these words of cursing, how often 
have we followed Job in his longings for repose and 
quiet, and found a soothing influence falling upon our 
perturbed and weary spirits as we have repeated the 
pathetic words in which he describes the rest his soul 
desires ! — For now should I have lain still and been 
quiet. I should have slept : then should I have been 
at rest with kings and counselors of the earth who 
built desolate places for themselves. With what 
mournful interest the mind dwells upon the deep and 
abiding quiet which the imagination pictures as what 
might have been if he had never been born : or as a 
hidden, untimely birth he had not been; as infants 
which never saw the light; the thought of such pro- 
found repose seems so sweet in contrast with the pres- 
ent trouble ! How searchingly it looks abroad through 
the mysterious waste of darkness for the place of deep- 
est silence and peace, lingering with longing desire 
upon particular descriptions of that uninterrupted soli- 
tude which it imagines others to have found in desolate 
places, and the comforts that belong to it, as though 
even the thought had power to soothe its weary aching ! 
This is that time in the experience of the Christian re- 
ferred to by Elihu (chap.xxxiii.), when the soul draweth 
near to the grave, and we look upon its quiet repose 
as most desirable. There the wicked cease from 
troubling, and there the weary be at rest. There the 
prisoners rest together; they hear not the voice of the 
oppressor. The small and great are there, and the 
servant is free from his master. The ills of life all 
quieted in the common place of rest. Can we tell why 



22 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

these words so often come with the effect of a hushing 
lullaby to our hearts? The Psalmist bears testimony 
that this is common to the saints — that it is Christian 
experience. When, under the terrors of death, fearful- 
ness and trembling were come upon him, and horror 
had overwhelmed him, he exclaimed, " Oh that I had 
wings like a dove ! for then would I fly away and be 
at rest. Lo, then would I wander far off and remain 
in the wilderness. Selah. I would hasten my escape 
from the windy storm and tempest." Ps. lvi. 6-8. 

Job returns from his momentary rest in the thought of 
oblivion to a renewed consciousness of his present mis- 
erable condition : Wherefore is light given to him 
that is in misery, and life unto the bitter in soul, 
which long for death, but it cometh not, and dig for 
it more than for hid treasures ; which rejoice exceed- 
ingly and are glad when they can fnd the grave? 
So our minds have often entertained, if we have not 
expressed, the question why there should have been 
sorrow and misery at all ; thus opposing our short- 
sighted weakness to the ordaining wisdom of God, for 
which in a peculiar manner his rebukes are given out 
of the whirlwind. 

Self-destruction does not suggest to the mind of Job 
the peace he desires. Though there is a longing of 
spirit for that mysterious change that might remove him 
from himself, and so ease him of his terrible burden, 
yet it must be at the hand of God. 

Why is light given to a man whose way is hid and 
whom God hath hedged in? Jeremiah also in his 
Lamentations says, " He hath hedged me about that I 
cannot get out ; he hath made my chain heavy." Lam. 
iii. 7. 



THE FIRST ANSWER OF JOB. 23 

While we are left with some degree of confidence in 
ourselves and a complacent feeling in regard to our own 
faithfulness and firmness of purpose, our way appears 
comparatively clear. So Peter thought his way clear 
when he said, " Though all men forsake thee, yet will 
not I." But when and whenever God makes us fully 
to know and feel our entire lack of any spiritual good- 
ness or strength, then our way is hid — we are hedged 
in — have no power to do what we see to be holy — see 
no way to escape from our miserable weakness and 
vileness ; desiring to do good, " but how to perform 
that which is good," we have to say with Paul, we " find 
not ;" miserably obliged to see with self-abasement that 
" with the flesh we serve the law of sin." Rom. vii. 
18, 25. 

Whose way God hath hedged in. What a forcible 
expression, and how well suited to our case ! But there 
are times when we feel more especially its strong sig- 
nificance. It is only under the present experience of 
pain that we can really know what pain is, and appre- 
ciate an adequate description of it or its full expression. 
When the agony is past we may think the exclamations 
it has forced from us too violent, though while it was 
upon us our words seemed weak and we felt that our 
stroke was heavier than our groaning. Hedged in. 
We walk about as usual, talk with the friends we meet, 
eat and drink and attend to business, so that outwardly 
we appear as before. Yet all the time we are intent 
upon our trouble ; our thoughts are wandering back 
and forth like birds in a cage or prisoners in a cell, 
searching for some place to escape, and going over and 
over again the same ground even when hope has gone. 
M He hath enclosed our way with hewn stone." Lam. iii. 



24 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

9. There is nothing for us but to die. By that way- 
only can we get away from this " bondage of corrup- 
tion," this wearing, wearying consciousness of sinful- 
ness and depravity. Here is what we feel under the 
full experience of the suffering which the malady of 
sin produces. By showing us our worthlessness and 
making us feel it, God hedges us in and hides our 
way. 

Did we fully realize our condition all the time, how 
could we endure it? We are graciously permitted to 
forget it in the contemplation of the hope of de- 
liverance when Christ in glorious beauty is presented 
to our faith as the Way, through whom we are re- 
moved by faith from the prison and " set in a broad 
place." 

How much of our time also is our condition forgotten 
or but faintly realized through the engrossment of 
worldly cares or the deceitfulness of the heart ! I am 
speaking to the daily experience of the Christian. You 
have seasons of quiet when your way runs along 
evenly. Again, you have great and exulting joy in 
contemplating the salvation of God. There are other 
times when a sense of the depravity of your heart 
and your utter destitution of all holiness in yourself 
so weighs upon you that your life becomes very 
heavy to you, and you " groan, being burdened." 2 
Cor. v. 4. 

But recall your state of mind in your most favored 
hours, when for days and months you have walked 
comfortably in the Christian journey with no special 
weight upon you. Can you not remember from time 
to time a consciousness that your transgressions, your 
ingratitude, your worldly-mindedness — in a word, your 



THE FIRST ANSWER OF JOB. 25 

sinfulness of nature — deserved heavy chastisement at the 
hand of God, and that it must be because of wonderful 
long-suffering on his part that it was withheld? And 
through your days of peace have you not feared that 
what you deserved would come ? If it were only to 
feel the full weight and sense of your corruption, that 
would be terrible. But should God's tender forbearance 
cease, and the just deserts of your wanderings be 
visited upon you, how could you bear it? I do not 
speak of eternal death. It is not that you feared, but 
what may be received in this state* Sometimes you 
have tried to picture to yourself the punishments that 
would be adequate, but before you could satisfy even 
your own faint view of justice the afflictions you de- 
creed overwhelmed you. How merciful is our God, 
and how wonderful the salvation wrought by him that 
we are so tenderly spared ! 

But Job, to fully represent the Church, could not be 
spared ; and through what we have experienced we 
can understand him when he says, For the thing which 
I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which 
I was afraid of is come unto me. How this expres- 
sion opens to our view his afflicted heart and reveals 
the terrors that have made him sit silent for seven days 
and nights ! While he only feared he could go trem- 
blingly, hopingly forward ; but now, at once, it is all 
upon him — all he could possibly fear, and he stands 
still in amazement of grief. It is not the literal loss 
of property, or children, or health that can account for 
this heaviness. It is not the physical pain that makes 
him " cry out of trouble." These, literally, he could 
not have feared, for they came unexpectedly upon him. 
He does not refer to them, nor would all that kind of 
3 



26 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

affliction be a sufficient ground for his peculiar lan- 
guage. But, viewed in his typical character, his utter- 
ances are suitable to his condition, which well repre- 
sents our afflicted state under the burden of corruption. 
And this expression will suit the case of any of the 
saints under the like state of mind, however the cir- 
cumstances may vary. A more definite description 
cannot be given. Each heart knows its own bitterness. 
It is not necessary that there should be outward misfor- 
tune or trouble in order for these words to be ours. 
When our thoughts seem endued with a more than hu- 
man power of scrutiny, and we have tried every act 
and motive of our lives by the light of holiness, and 
find all without good, we know then a deep but inex- 
pressible meaning in the words, That -which I greatly 
feared is come unto me. We will notice here that as 
a type it is not necessary that he should have done evil 
formerly in order to present the case of those who are 
under a sense of condemnation for sin, whether they 
have been guilty of outbreaking sins or not. It is his 
present condition, physically, that typifies their state, 
and his words we can understand as suited to their 
case more particularly than to his own temporal cir- 
cumstances. 

If he had been carelessly at rest, idly content with 
his state, sleeping the sluggard's sleep, taking his ease 
and filling his heart with the pleasures of this life, it 
would not have been so surprising that terror should 
overtake him as a thief and want come upon him as 
an armed man. But this was not the case. He was 
watchful, walking softly before the Lord, feeling that 
he had no safety in himself. He was careful, offering 



THE FIRST ANSWER OF JOB. 



27 



up sacrifices and prayer; not quieting himself, as the 
foolish man does in his own way, but seeking the way 
of God. 

I was not in safety, neither had I rest, neither was 
I quiet; yet trouble came. 







III. 



ANSWER OF ELIPHAZ. 



CHAPTER IV. 

Job has paused in his outburst of grief. His three 
friends have seen his outward trouble, and that " his 
grief was very great ;" and they have manifested their 
natural sympathy by sitting silently with him for seven 
days and nights. They have also listened while he 
complained in the bitterness of his soul. But here is 
something they do not seem to understand. They can 
see no reason for the peculiar manner of his speech ; 
there is even something offensive to them in its tone. 

We shall see that these three friends represent the re- 
ligion of the world ; the understanding of the natural 
mind concerning God ; its ignorance of man's real state 
as a depraved being, and of the manner and effect of 
God's dealings with him. They had co7?ie every one 
fro?7i his own place, as worldly teachers do, and not 
from the place where Christ prepares his messengers. 
Eliphaz was the name of one of the sons of Esau. 
Gen. xxxvi. n. The name signifies The endeavor of 
God, and is well adapted to one who teaches that the 
work of salvation is an endeavor on the part of God, 
which may or may not be accomplished, according as 
the sinner gives or withholds his help. 
28 



ANSWER OF ELIPHAZ. 29 

Concerning Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the 
Naamathite we have no account elsewhere in the Scrip- 
tures, except that Shuah was the name of one of Abra- 
ham's sons by Keturah, from whom Bildad may have 
sprung. They were all children of the flesh and not 
of promise. The name of Bildad, signifying old friend- 
ships old motion, and that of Zophar, signifying rising 
early, or crown, are also suited to their character as 
teachers of that religion that holds fast the old friend- 
ship of the world and demands motion or labor from 
those who are without strength, as a ground of accept- 
ance with God, calling upon its votaries to " rise early" 
to their work — to "be up and doing." But it will be by 
their words we shall judge them and see their character 
defined. 

Eliphaz takes the lead, and at once attacks the suffer- 
ing man he professes to have come to comfort : If we 
assay to commune with thee, wilt thou be grieved? 
but who can withhold himself from speaking? Not 
the really zealous Pharisee, of course, when even by 
sighs and groans the poor, heavy-laden sinner is forced 
to acknowledge the truth concerning man's depravity. 

Behold, thou hast instructed many, and thou hast 
strengthened the weak hands. Thy words have up- 
holden him that was falling, and thou hast strength- 
ened the feeble knees. But now it is come upon thee, 
and thou faintest; it toucheth thee, and thou art 
troubled. 

He has only seen the outward appearance of Job's 
trouble, his worldly losses and personal affliction, and 
this is all he understands of his case ; and, really, it 
seems as though one who had encouraged and sus- 
tained others under like afflictions ought to bear them 
3* 



30 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

with more fortitude when they come upon himself. 
And why does he not? the natural observer inquires. 
He does not lack courage, for he has given evidence of 
that. Why, then, is he now so overwhelmed? A 
wounded and stinging conscience seems to suggest itself 
to Eliphaz as the only explanation. Ignorant of the 
burden imposed by a consciousness of depravity upon 
the quickened soul, he can only think of some acts of 
injustice and wickedness committed by Job while falsely 
professing to fear and serve God, as the cause of his 
present mental distress. He therefore applies himself 
where he imagines the evil to be, and, like all worldly 
teachers, " physicians of no value," first attacks Job's 
religion, against which he thinks he finds a conclusive 
argument in his present pitiable condition, and then 
presents his own system as a remedy for all his 
maladies. 

We shall have occasion frequently to notice the simi- 
larity of the pretended friends, but really enemies, of 
David to these friends of Job. As David describes them, 
we see them to be of the same character, and their false 
speeches the same. And we shall hereafter notice that 
the same terms are used by both of these saints in 
speaking of these persecutors. For the present we will 
allude to what is said in the forty-first Psalm. David 
acknowledges, as Job does, that he has sinned, but 
declares, as Job continually does, that his enemy 
misjudges and speaks evil of him. "And if he come 
to see me he speaketh vanity. His heart gathered 
iniquity to itself; when he goeth abroad he telleth 
it." " An evil disease, say they, cleaveth fast unto 
him ; and now that he lieth he shall rise up no more." 
Ps. xli. 6, 8. 



ANSWER OF ELIPHAZ. 3 1 

Is not this thy fear, thy confidence, thy hope and 
the uprightness of thy ways? As though he had said, 
You have professed to fear God, to confide and 
hope in him, while you have been doing nothing to 
atone for your sins, but rather have indulged secretly in 
acts of iniquity ; and now the hypocrisy and fallacy of 
your fear and hope, and the lack of uprightness in your 
ways, are all made clear by this affliction, which is but 
a just judgment of God upon you for your crimes. 
Remember, I pray thee, who ever perished, being in- 
nocent? or where were the righteous cut off? Even 
as I have seen, they that plough iniquity and sow 
wickedness reap the same. Here, as we shall see, is 
the whole essence of their objections against Job, here- 
after reiterated and enlarged upon. We shall have oc- 
casion to notice more particularly in another place 
wherein the falsity of these remarks consists as applied 
to Job naturally. 

Eliphaz is evidently intent upon causing Job to con- 
fess his hypocrisy, discard his own former doctrine and 
become a convert to his. So, as is usual in such efforts, 
he tells of a scaring vision. He would give supernat- 
ural weight and authority to what he is going to say by 
attributing his knowledge of it to the mysterious teach- 
ings of a spirit. Now all the saints are taught of the 
Spirit of God, " as it is written, And they shall all be 
taught of God ;" and John says, " The anointing ye 
have received teacheth you of all things." i John ii. 
27. And this anointing is the Spirit of the Lord. But 
this Spirit does not come in some terrifying form to their 
natural vision, nor is the communication to the natural 
mind. The teachings of this Spirit will correspond in 
all the saints, and will be attested by the Scriptures. 



3 2 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

We arc are therefore commanded to try the spirits, be- 
cause " many false spirits are gone out into the world ;" 
and we will endeavor to obey by trying Eliphaz' spirit, 
or the spirit he professed to have heard. 

Now a thing was secretly brought to me, and mine 
ear received a little thereof. In thoughts from the 
visions of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon 
men, fear came upon ?ne and trembling, which made 
all my bones to shake. Then a spirit passed before 
my face; the hair of my flesh stood up ; it stood still, 
but I could not discern the for?n thereof; an image 
was before mine eyes, there was silence and I heard 
a voice, saying. Surely Job will not have the temerity 
to dispute or disregard anything that has been com- 
municated in so startling, mysterious and impressive a 
manner. But what is it that is thus spoken ? Shall 
mortal man be ?nore just than God? shall a man be 
?nore pure than his Maker? Truly a strange question 
to be asked with such force and terror of circumstance. 
If we really regarded it as true that such a question 
was asked of Eliphaz in such a manner, we should 
look upon it as intended to rebuke his own self-exalta- 
tion, and not to be carried by him as a reproof to Job. 
But this was merely the manner chosen by Eliphaz, 
and characteristic of his class, in which to falsely charge 
Job with having regarded himself as purer and more 
just than God ; and to give his false charges, of which 
false religion is always full against the saints, an air of 
great solemnity. But this is not all the spirit said : 
Behold, he put no trust in his servants, and his an- 
gels he charged with folly. Here we learn clearly 
that this was a " lying spirit,'' for this is not the truth. 
We have the assurance of God that these men did not 



ANSWER OF ELIPHAZ. 33 

speak of him the thing that is right ; and the Scriptures 
show us the error of this assertion of Eliphaz. God 
does put trust in his servants, not as men, but as his 
servants, qualified by his own Spirit to do his will : 
" Behold my servant whom I uphold ; mine elect in 
whom my soul delighteth : I have put my Spirit upon 
him." Isa. xlii. 1. God thus prepares his servant for 
his service and upholds him in it, and in trusting him he 
trusts his own power ; for in Christ only, who is alluded 
to in the above Scripture, are any the servants of God. 
But where is the account of his having charged his 
angels with folly? "Are they not all ministering 
spirits sent forth to minister to them that shall be heirs 
of salvation?" Heb. i. 14. It cannot be said that 
Eliphaz only intended those who are popularly sup- 
posed to have fallen from a holy state in heaven, for 
the very point and force of this assertion, that God 
charges them with folly, is in supposing them still to 
retain all their original excellence. 

Here is the reason of this remark of Eliphaz : He 
and his friends, hearing Job declaring the doctrine of 
man's inability, and knowing that he pretends to hope 
in God, conclude he must have been looking for 
heavenly favor on the ground of some native excellence 
and purity in himself which entitles him to it. For, 
since he does not believe in works as a ground of sal- 
vation, and they know nothing of the way of salvation 
by grace through faith in a Mediator, this is all the con- 
clusion they can come to. Here is part of the great 
opposition of the world to the Church and doctrine of 
God. Now he is afflicted in their sight, and their time 
is come to show him how vain his former hope and 
confidence are. For this purpose they declare that even 

C 



34 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

God's servants and angels are worthy of nothing — 
making the declaration in such form as makes it false 
in their mouth ; and if there is nothing deserving in 
them, how much less in the?n that dwell in houses of 
clay, whose foundation is in the dust, which are 
crushed before the moth I So he would impress upon 
Job the necessity of changing his system of doctrine 
for that which he will hereafter present, and work for 
what he desires, making himself worthy of it by his 
labor. 

Here we observe how impossible it is for one to speak 
correctly concerning God by the exercise merely of 
natural wisdom. In the wisdom of God the world by 
wisdom knows not God. i Cor. i. 21. When the false 
teacher deems it necessary to speak of God's greatness 
and power in order to sustain his cause, or to give an 
appearance of truth to his objections against the people 
who hold the truth, his expressions bear evidence of his 
ignorance and hypocrisy, and do not convey the truth 
of God's character, as the poor, helpless sinner has 
learned it and as the Scriptures teach it. 

What Eliphaz says here about the wicked is clearly 
to bear against Job, whom he now looks upon as a 
good example of God's dealings with them. He shows 
no correct view of man's depravity and of God's just 
abhorrence of sin ; nor shall we find in all that he or 
his friends have said an intimation that they know any- 
thing of the way of salvation through a Mediator. All 
the wickedness they speak of is such as men see in 
outward acts, and in charging such upon Job they 
charge falsely. 



ANSWER OF ELIPHAZ. 35 



CHAPTER V. 

Call now, if there be any that will answer thee; 
and to which of the saints wilt thou turn f Job can 
call no witness that Eliphaz would receive to sustain 
by his testimony his own doctrine and refute the posi- 
tion of Eliphaz. The saints that have gone home can- 
not be recalled, and their testimony, when left on 
record as it is in the Scriptures, is perverted and denied 
by those whom Eliphaz and his friends represent ; and 
the living witnesses are rejected by them, not acknow- 
ledged to be saints. Those who have died in affliction, 
in poverty and all manner of distress, and whose 
manner of death would therefore contradict all this false 
theory, are regarded as having died as the foolish and 
silly by the just judgment of God ; and so by the as- 
sertion that wrath killeth the foolish man, and envy 
slayeth the silly one, they are put aside as witnesses. 
There is no sign to be given, our Saviour said, but the 
sign of the prophet Jonas. Only by experience can 
the truth be known. Those who are of God will hear 
Moses and the prophets ; and if they hear not them, 
" neither will they be persuaded though one rose from 
the dead." Luke xvi. 31. 

How covertly he continues his insinuations against 
the poor, afflicted man he speaks to, persecuting and 
speaking to the grief of him whom God has smitten ! 
Ps. lxix. 26. / have seen the foolish — that is, Job — 
taking root; but suddenly I cursed his habitation — 
saw it as an object to be despised and abhorred, be- 
cause God's wrath had fallen upon it. His children 
are far from safety, and they are crushed in the 



36 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

gate, neither is there any to deliver the?n — refer- 
ring to his loss of children as an evidence of his in- 
iquity. 

Xow, although affliction cometh not forth of the 
dust, neither doth trouble spring out of the ground, 
but are to be regarded as judgments of God, accurately 
meted out and apportioned to our amount of wicked- 
ness, so that (if the doctrine of Eliphaz were true) we 
might know how much wickedness a man had com- 
mitted by the amount of suffering God inflicts upon 
him ; yet, for the consolation of Job, as showing that he 
is not alone altogether, only in regard to the degree of 
his wickedness, he will acknowledge that man is born 
unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward. He is no 
doubt free to include himself in this general condition 
of man, for it will but add to his merit that he was 
born unto trouble, since by his wise and righteous 
course of conduct he has avoided it, while upon the 
foolish and unworthy, such as Job, its full weight falls. 

I would seek u?ito God, a?id unto God would I com- 
mit my cause. Here is his system and the remedy he 
proposes. It sounds well to the natural ear, and has a 
show of likeness to some of the words addressed by the 
Lord to his people, — by our Saviour to his disciples. 
But there is false doctrine here, as well as a false charge 
implied against the people of God, that they are not 
seeking unto him. By this advice he asserts that the 
work begins with man, and either that the knowledge 
of God, as a Saviour, is not by revelation, or that those 
to whom he is so revealed are not necessarily saved ; all 
of which is contrary to the truth. His speaking so to 
Job is as though one in the darkness of midnight, who 
is looking at a rush light which he thinks the sun, 



ANSWER OF ELIPHAZ. 37 

should call to one who stands in midday, with the sun 
hidden by a cloud (if we may imagine two, in such 
different conditions naturally, able to speak together), 
and advise him to seek the sun. As though Job had 
not his mind continually turned toward the Lord. 
But Eliphaz does not know that it is because the fear 
of God is in his heart that he is so troubled and per- 
plexed and sorrowful on account of the unholiness of 
his nature. It is a worldly seeking unto God that he 
has proposed — a formal and legal method of attempting 
to conciliate him ; which is seen in the remaining part 
of this chapter, where the worldly rewards of the 
worldly religion are described. 

He proceeds to speak of the great things and un- 
searchable, marvelous things without number, which 
God does, who giveth rain upon the earth and send- 
eth waters upon the fields, to set up on high those 
that be low, and exalt the mourner to safety : tells how 
he disappoints the devices of the crafty, taking the wise 
in their own craftiness, and saving the poor from them ; 
still keeping his speech pointed against Job, by whom 
in his abased condition he would represent the wise 
and rich and crafty who have been disappointed in 
their proud and oppressive schemes. There is a sound 
as of truthful teaching here when we read without 
careful attention. But the very style shows that tem- 
poral things are spoken of — that the poor in worldly 
things, who will do as the worldly teacher advises, will 
be enriched literally by the blessings of God upon his 
fields. Is it true? and is it true that the crafty fail 
literally in their wicked designs? This will be brought 
to our notice again for more particular mention. 

The expression, " He taketh the wise in their own 

4 



38 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

craftiness," is quoted by the Apostle Paul, I Cor. iii. 19. 
This would be sufficient evidence that Eliphaz was in- 
spired to speak of God the thing that was right, did we 
not have the direct declaration of God to the contrary, 
as well as continual scriptural proofs that he did not 
speak the true doctrine of God. As Paul does not de- 
fine the place where it is written, we may suppose that 
he has quoted from some other inspired record not pre- 
served to us, as Jude evidently did in telling what 
Enoch prophesied (Jude 14) ; or that he has taken 
this spiritual truth from some other Scripture, slightly 
varying the form. The Apostle applies it spiritually 
in opposition to the very doctrine Eliphaz and his 
friends teach. Eliphaz may have taken it from the 
same inspired record that Paul did, as both the Phari- 
sees and the disciples referred to the same Scriptures 
and pretended to rely upon the truth of God's written 
word ; but he, like the Pharisees, wrested the word, 
handled it deceitfully, and, instead of seeing the true 
spiritual doctrine in it, falsely applied it to temporal 
things, to the affliction of the sorrowing servant of 
God. 

Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth ; 
therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Al- 
mighty. For he maketh sore and bindeth up; he 
vjoundeth and his hands make whole. 

A chastening by temporal afflictions, such as he can 
see, has happened to Job's possessions and person, 
which, if Job does not despise it, will be a blessing, by 
bringing down his pride, making him adopt their doc- 
trine of works ; and then he is promised that God will 
bind up and make whole his afflicting wounds, by giv- 
ing back health and property. 



ANSWER OF ELIPHAZ. 39 

They have undoubtedly envied him, and represent 
the envy .of the enemies of the truth against the people 
of God, not for worldly exaltation, but for the spiritual 
exaltation given them in God's word and counsel, and 
the spiritual peace and prosperity often enjoyed by 
them. This envy the Psalmist often speaks of, and that 
which calls it forth is represented by the former condi- 
tion of Job ; for he was the greatest of all the men of 
the East. 

God will truly protect his people who put their trust 
in him, so that not one hair of their head shall fall to 
the ground, and he will grant them peace and prosper- 
ity. The ninety-first Psalm contains a description of 
the blessings of protection and prosperity that shall rest 
upon him who dwells in the secret place of the Most 
High. But all this is spiritual, and not concerning 
worldly things, as Eliphaz teaches. Although we know 
that he marks all our way, so that nothing can befall us 
without his will, and we may therefore rest in him, yet 
we are not warranted in looking for an exemption from 
temporal dangers and misfortunes and from the devices 
of worldly enemies, nor for worldly prosperity relig- 
iously, such as the religion of the world enjoys. Our 
Saviour told his disciples that in the world they should 
have tribulation, and they have found it true. Particu- 
lar mention is made of the various afflictions of the 
saints, " of whom the world was not worthy," by the 
apostle (Heb. ii. 36-38), and those, too, especially in 
the old times, that included the age of Job's affliction 
literally. But with all these distresses temporally, 
they were spiritually abiding " under the shadow of 
the Almighty," and enjoying his wise and merciful 
care. Of this spiritual prosperity in worldly discom- 



4° THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

fort, however, these vain teachers knew and know 
nothing. Eliphaz would have talked the same to Laz- 
arus at the rich man's gate, to Stephen in the midst of 
his enemies, to Peter or Paul in prison, as he did to 
Job ; would have assured them that God was but pun- 
ishing them for their transgressions; would have ad- 
them with self-complacent zeal to seek unto God ; 
and would have presented for their emulation the com- 
fortable and prosperous state of the good man. 

He shall deliver thee in six troubles: yea, in seven 
there shall no evil touch thee. This, like many other 
passages we have noticed and shall yet notice in the 
speeches of these men, has passed into very common 
use even among Christians, being often quoted by them 
as bearing the authority of inspired Scripture. But 
this ought not to be. It certainly is not right to receive 
and use as the word of God, or as truth, that upon 
which he has put the express seal of his disapproval, 
as he has upon the sayings of these men. Why should 
this last saying of Eliphaz ever have been thought com- 
forting? If the saints were only to expect deliverance 
from seven troubles, they would be sadly off indeed, for 
in any one day all the extent of the promise would be 
exhausted. The promise of God is more like himself 
than this. He gives in no limited measure. He has 
engaged to deliver them from all their troubles, and 
never leave nor forsake them ; for his faithfulness 
reacheth unto the clouds and his mercy endureth for 
ever. 

Having been delivered in six troubles and kept from 
the touch of evil in seven ; having been redeemed from 
death in famine and from the power of the sword in 
war ; having been hid from the scourge of the tongue 



ANSWER OF ELIPHAZ. 41 

and kept from fear at the coming of destruction ; having 
been in league and at peace with the stones and beasts 
of the field ; having seen his seed great and his off- 
spring as the grass of the earth — to which, however, 
the wicked are compared, who "spring as the grass" 
(Ps. xcii. 7) — this good man of Eliphaz's imagination 
has a corresponding close, appropriately represented 
by a bountiful autumnal figure : Thou shalt come to 
thy grave in a full age, like as a shock of corn cometh 
in in his season. Evidently all the blessings of his re- 
ligion end at the grave. No word of suffering here or 
of the comforts of a bright prospect beyond enters into 
any of his descriptions of religious prosperity. What 
will he do with the case of those who do not come to the 
grave in a full age and in the enjoyment of temporal 
abundance? He does not know of the New Earth, or 
spiritual kingdom, where " the child shall die a hun- 
dred years old ;" where the beggar here is rich abun- 
dantly in faith, and where the sick and the mourning 
souls of this world are in spiritual health and unspeak- 
able joy. 

Lo this, we have searched it, so it is; hear it and 
know thou it for thy good. So, after all, they have not 
brought us instruction which they have received of the 
Lord as his messengers, but which they have them- 
selves searched out. This is a distinguishing and cer- 
tain mark of the worldly teacher. The messengers or 
ministers sent of God are abundantly furnished by his 
word " unto every good work." He bids them preach 
the word he gives them, and they can add nothing to it 
by their own study. But those of whom these three are 
a type prepare themselves, every one in his own place, 
for the work by studying and searching out; and they 
4* 



42 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

boast of the labor by which they have acquired the 
knowledge they are now prepared to teach, not know- 
ing, in the blindness of their vanity, that they thus prove 
to the people of God that they are not his servants, and 
are entitled to no credit. 




IV. 

SECOND ANSWER OF JOB. 



CHAPTER VI. 

But yob answered and said, Oh that my grief 
were thoroughly weighed, and my calamity laid in 
the balances together ! 

Ever since the fall, sorrow has been talked about, 
griefs have been told, afflictions recounted, and bitter 
complaints forced from men because of pain. But who 
has ever been able to weigh his grief or tell the measure 
of it? It cannot be taken up and examined, and the 
extent and burden of it described. Under affliction one 
sinks down weak and faint, while another closes the 
pain away from human observation and goes about his 
accustomed work ; but we cannot compare their suffer- 
ing, strictly estimate the amount each bears, and say 
which is the heavier burden. 

What a strange, unaccountable thing is sorrow ! so 
common to all, so easily recognized when it comes, so 
hard to endure, and yet impossible to comprehend ! 
The philosopher may sit down to the task of investi- 
gating its nature, take deep interest in the study, and 
rejoice to believe that he has explained all the mystery 
connected with it, when suddenly it comes like a swell- 
ing wave upon his own soul, and his philosophy is all 

43 



44 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

swept away, his pen drops from his nerveless fingers, 
and the old, old groan — the language of grief common 
among all men in all ages — escapes him ; while the 
words he has written appear to him as empty sounds, 
conveying hardly an intimation of what is now upon 
him. 

Far greater than all other affliction, deeper than all 
other sorrow, heavier than all other grief, is that which 
comes with the consciousness of our sins and depravity 
in the sight of a holy God. Loss of worldly posses- 
sions, friends and health, — all these are nothing to this 
affliction. Temporal misfortunes and suffering are 
counted light in comparison with this heavy and pain- 
ful burden that now weighs us down to the dust. What 
anguish is in that self-abhorrence we must feel while 
ever conscious of being ourself the very corrupt thing 
we loathe ! what sorrow in the feeling that we are 
daily offending against the holiness of that God we have 
come to adore, and the sense of whose displeasure is 
now our greatest oppression ! No words can express it. 
Oh could we but be pure in his sight ! could the stains 
upon us but be washed away ! But we are all one stain 
in his sight — no soundness or purity in us. How we 
sink under the oppression while our heart bursts with 
its fullness of grief, and becomes weak and tender as we 
think of that purity we so long for, but which, alas ! can 
never be ours. Is it a wonder that the poor heart leaps 
for joy and bursts forth in glad and triumphant songs of 
praise when the wonderful and blessed way of salvation 
is made known to us, and that holiness from which we 
had thought ourselves for ever debarred becomes ours 
through a glorious Redeemer, " who was made sin for 
us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in 



SECOND ANSWER OF JOB. 45 

him ?" 2 Cor. v. 21. But this is the joy of hope. "We 
wait for the hope of righteousness by faith." Gal. v. 5. 
We are yet left with "the body of this death" and all its 
heaviness, waiting for deliverance, and comforted dur- 
ing our sojourn here by that blessed and sure hope. 
When we contemplate the glory to which it points us 
with steadfast certainty, the cause of sorrow is gone, 
forgotten ; but when we look upon ourselves, it returns 
with full force. Through death only shall full deliver- 
ance come ; and it is not strange, therefore, that when 
heavily burdened and dark, death should appear desira- 
ble to us. 

Job has tried to speak his grief, but in vain, as it ap- 
pears to him now, for they who heard have not under- 
stood it. He is despised as one who lacks strength 
and who complains beyond reason. But he knows his 
calamity is real, and expresses the wish that it might 
be weighed. For now it would be heavier than the 
sand of the sea : therefore my words are swallowed 
up. For the arrows of the Almighty are within me, 
the poison whereof drinketh up my spirit : the terrors 
of God do set themselves in array against me. 

The mere temporal troubles, it is true, would not 
seem to find expression in such language, but the state 
of afflicted Zion, which he typifies, does. The Lord, 
and not Satan, is recognized as the one from whom the 
affliction comes. His arrows have brought down the 
spirit of men, and they are afraid. The friends do not 
understand this, but he assures them there is adequate 
cause for his complaint. Doth the wild ass bray when 
he hath grass, or loweth the ox over his fodder f 
Would he make such complaint if such comforts as they 
profess to offer were really within his reach ? It is the 



46 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

most unsavory and tasteless food that he now has. The 
things that my soul refused to touch are as my sor- 
rowful meat. While in health and comfort the thought 
of death was distasteful and distress was not dwelt upon. 
But especially the thought of evil and depravity was 
obnoxious to the soul. But here we find our being full 
of it, and it stares upon us so that we cannot put it out 
of our sight. The words of lamentation we had no use 
for before are now a sorrowful relief, and there is a 
mournful comfort in the thought of death, so that he 
earnestly desires that God would destroy him. This is 
the voice or request of extreme pain, and not of faith, 
but its reproof cannot come from the world, whose wis- 
dom has no understanding of the case. " My tears 
have been my meat day and night," the Psalmist says ; 
and such was Job's sorrowful meat. Let hi?n not 
spare, for I have not concealed the words of the Holy 
One. The word of God has entered his soul, and has 
made him feel all his vileness and nothingness before 
God ; and he has not concealed that word, but has fully 
and plainly shown all the grief, the longings, the anx- 
ious questionings, the struggles of soul that it produces — 
not hiding the truth concerning his depravity, and pro- 
fessing himself able, as his friends would have him, to 
make himself more acceptable to God, nor keeping 
back his self-abhorrence from the ears of others, as 
worldly pride would prompt. To fully represent as a 
type the case of God's people in all the extreme suffer- 
ing under the law and its threatenings, he was given 
the inclination and the power to open his troubled, worn 
and grieving heart fully to view through these complain- 
ing words, though thus exposed, as are all of the same 
afflicted family, to the scorn of those who know nothing 



SECOND ANSWER OF JOB. 47 

of the power of God's word or of the suffering of the 
sinsick soul. 

What is my strength that I should hope, and what 
is mine end that I should prolong my life? Have I 
strength in which I can hope to free myself from this 
bondage of corruption while I remain here ? We have 
been taught that our strengh is weakness, and we can 
have no confidence in the flesh. And what earthly end 
or aim is there that is worth living for ? All earthly 
things are vanity. Moses, in the ninetieth Psalm, has 
shown what our strength is under the law. Though 
by reason of strength our days be fourscore years, u yet 
is their strength labor and sorrow." They speak falsely 
who tell us we have strength to free ourselves from 
trouble. 

But it is the present affliction Job would be free from, 
and not any dread of the hereafter that weighs upon 
him. And here we discern that faith that still points 
the saint to a rest in the Saviour, even from the darkest 
night of grief and the most tempestuous ocean of adver- 
sity. We feel a confidence that our sorrow will end 
with death, and that " to depart and be with Christ is 
far better" for us. We have " seen an end of all per- 
fection," and see no reason why we should remain, 
since we have not the strength of stones nor flesh of 
drass, that we can bear heavy strokes without feeling. 
So Job would say, Let me depart and be at rest, for the 
world is no longer a place of hope or desire or comfort. 
But in this we show the unreconciliation of our poor 
fallen nature to God's will. We should be sure that 
for a wise purpose he causes us to remain and suffer, 
and should submit unquestioningly. 

Is not my help in me? and is ivisdom driven quite 



48 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

from me? Have not I wisdom enough left to see that 
my help is not in worldly wisdom or power, but that 
the word of God within me is my help? And that 
points through death. 

Job now, for the first time, turns his attention directly to 
his friends, most plaintively noticing their deceitful deal- 
ing with him : To him that is afflicted pity should be 
showed from his friend; but he forsaketh the fear of 
the Almighty. My brethren have dealt deceitfully as 
a brook, and as the stream of brooks they pass away. 
Worldly friendship, and more especially the friendship 
of worldly religion, fails in all its proffers of comfort 
or help to the child of God in his affliction. But Job 
does not seem to be noticing his friends personally as 
three men, nor replying literally to the words of Eli- 
phaz. He looks away beyond them, and sees the great 
throng of false teachers represented by them that 
gather against the company of the redeemed in all 
ages. The troops of Tema {south country or perfec- 
tion) looked, the companies of Sheba ( captivity, 
surrounding, co?iversion, repose, old age) waited for 
them. 

They made an appointment together and waited for 
each other. They came in their own strength and 
perfection to display their power. They had heard 
of Job's affliction, and here was their opportunity. They 
would surround, captivate and convert him from his 
miserable state to a state of perfect ion, so that he might 
have worldly repose and come to his grave "as a shock 
of corn cometh in in his season." But here is a different 
case from what they had expected. They cannot stop 
his complaints, and yet he evidently holds himself in 
some sense above them, and repels all their efforts to 



SECOND ANSWER OF JOB. 49 

teach him their way. They were confounded because 
they had hoped; they came thither and were ashamed — 
ashamed because his case so confounds them and sets 
at naught all their arts, so that they have failed to ac- 
complish what they had confidently hoped and prom- 
ised themselves they were able to do. They cannot 
make a convert of Job. For now ye are nothing; ye 
see my casting-down and are afraid. Their power 
to comfort vanishes away like a shallow brook in the 
presence of his (to them) unaccountable sorrow ; their 
very proffers of comfort and professions of sympathy 
are proven to be insincere, for they turn upon him in 
anger, and discover that enmity against him in his 
character as a child of God was secretly in their hearts. 
But he challenges them to show that he has called for 
them or asked anything at their hands : Did I say, 
Bring unto me? or, Give a reward for me of your 
substance? or, Deliver me from the enemy's hand? 
or, Redeem me from the hand of the mighty? He 
has not required their help, neither have they proven 
themselves helpers. They have not shown him 
wherein he has erred. His errors are beyond their 
view. How forcible are right words! but what doth 
your arguing reprove? Do ye imagine to reprove 
words, and the speeches of one that is desperate, 
which are as wind? Can the cry of one that is hurt 
be reproved by such arguments as theirs? It is a truth- 
ful expression — no falsehood or craftiness in a cry from 
real pain — and yet it is as the wind, having no set ob- 
ject or aim, as one has in an argument he sets about 
making. It is the mere voice of pain, the echo of the 
stroke that has fallen. Job has been enabled to send 
forth his cries and groans of anguish interpreted ; and 
5 D 



5° THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

all the longings and desires that are latent in them, not 
perceptible even to the sufferer, he has expressed in 
words. But still the words and speeches are as the 
wind. Yet his friends, without even attempting to 
soothe or heal the wound, reprove the cry, and by argu- 
ments and doctrine which only increase the bitterness. 
Instead of curing his malady, they, by their false, vain 
speeches, are only tending to bury him completely in 
despair. Tea, ye overwhelm the fatherless, and ye 
dig a pit for your friend. David complains of the 
same treacherous dealing, Ps. lvii. 6. But more es- 
pecially is the cruel effect of this doctrine, that salvation 
depends upon works, declared by the Lord through the 
prophecy of Isaiah. There it is declared that by these 
errors they " make empty the soul of the hungry," 
" cause the drink of the thirsty to fail," and " destroy 
the poor with lying words, even when the needy speak- 
eth right." Isa. xxxii. 6, 7. The doctrine taught to the 
poor and helpless, that the bread and water of life 
must be merited by labor and riches of righteousness 
of their own before it will be given to them, must cause 
them to despair in proportion as they believe it and feel 
their own destitution. 

Now, therefore, be content; look upon me; for it is 
evident unto you if I lie. 

They might see that he does not simulate pain. His 
condition corresponds with and proves his words of 
complaint to be from cause. 

Return, I pray you; let it not be iniquity. Let 
them examine carefully both his case and all he has 
complained, and not pronounce it iniquity. Tea, re- 
turn again ; ??iy righteous?iess is in it. This is a won- 
derful intimation of the way in which God brings us to 



SECOND ANSWER OF JOB. 51 

a knowledge of the Lord as our righteousness, by 
bringing us first to know and groan under our own 
utter lack of righteousness. If we of ourselves were 
righteous and happy, what need of a Saviour? And, 
not being so, yet if we remained ignorant of our lost 
state, how could we know and appreciate the blessings 
of salvation? But in the painful sense of our own cor- 
ruption we learn the glory of that righteousness which 
he has given to us. Kept humbly conscious of our 
own entire destitution by fiery trials, we learn to lean 
upon Him " who of God is made unto us righteous- 
ness." Even while the flesh complains faith beholds 
the truth that God chastiseth every son whom he loveth, 
and that it is for their good — their righteousness is in 
it. He has grieved and complained, yet, he asks, Is 
there iniquity in my tongue? Has he denied the 
truth and so cursed God, as his wife and they would 
have him? He can still discern and still hate false 
doctrine. Ca?inot my taste discern perverse things? 



CHAPTER VII. 

Is there not an appointed time to man upon the 
earth ? are not his days also like the days of a hire- 
ling? 

We need not dwell upon the mournfully familiar ex- 
pressions found in this chapter. How many have read 
here their own experience, and have repeated these 
plaintive words in seasons of great trial and weariness, 
soothed and comforted by the thought that another, and 
a saint, has, through his sorrow, given them language they 
could not have found to express their own ! We are 



52 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

taught in the Scriptures that all the goodliuess of man 
is as the flower of grass. Here are the thoughts and 
emotions of one who has fully experienced it. He has 
clearly realized the end of all earthly good, yet remains 
to suffer out his appointed day ; for he acknowledges 
the truth that God has appointed our bounds that we 
cannot pass, and makes the affirmation of it question- 
ingly, not as expressing doubt, but as something that 
none should deny. The days of a man during this ap- 
pointed time are compared to the days of a hireling, 
who, wearied with labor, longs for night to come, and 
earnestly desires the shadow of evening to announce 
the end of his work, that he may rest from it. As the 
servant earnestly desireth the shadow, and as a hire- 
ling looketh for a reward of his work, so am I made 
to possess months of vanity, and wearisome nights 
are appointed unto me. Here again is a pointed evi- 
dence that we are to regard him in his speech as a 
type. Had he been referring merely to what had liter- 
ally taken place, he could hardly have spoken of months 
of vanity, for he seems to have been under this last 
affliction but seven days before he began speaking, and 
all that has been said, so far, could have occupied but a 
short time. His language is that of the people of God 
groaning under the weariness of sin and the vain labors 
of the law — groaning under the captivity into which 
Satan brings them when God, for a wise purpose, de- 
livers them into his power. The voice of the people 
of God while under a sense of this captivity is given 
by Moses : " For all our days are passed away in thy 
wrath : we spend our years as a tale that is told." Ps. 
xc. 9. None but those who have experienced this 
aching unrest, this disconsolate state of the soul from day 



SECOND ANSWER OF JOB. 53 

to day can appreciate the power of the language used 
here : When I lie down I say, When shall I arise, 
and the night be gone? and I am full of tossings to 
and fro unto the dawning of the day. Literally, he 
is imagined still to be sitting in the ashes ; but in the 
figure you are speaking, whoever you may be, who see 
your case described here ; whose nights are full of sighs 
and restlessness, and to whom the light of morning 
brings no relief. How can he rest in comfort who has 
to say, My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of 
dust ; my skin is broken and become loathsome? Yet 
this language describes what we feel to be our state, 
after we have the knowledge of the exceeding sinful- 
ness of sin, and that which causes us to wander and 
toss restlessly, except when we have a sweet view of 
Christ and can rest in him. All the saints, with the 
Psalmist, can testify that Job does not allude merely to 
the condition of his flesh literally, but to his inward 
condition : " For my life is spent with grief, and my 
years with sighing ; my strength faileth because of mine 
iniquity, and my bones are consumed." Ps. xxxi. 10. 
" There is no soundness in my flesh because of thine 
anger ; neither is there any rest in my bones because 
of my sin." " My wounds stink and are corrupt because 
of my foolishness." Ps. xxxviii. 3, 5. Here is the same 
complaint, with the cause fully expressed by him who 
was the man after God's own heart. When the chil- 
dren of God feel the same now, shall they despairingly 
say their hope is gone ? We hear no such language of 
self-abasement from the friends of Job, nor from any of 
their class now. 

My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle, and 
are spent without hope — without hope in this life, 
5 * 



54 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

hope of getting better, worthier, sounder in flesh. 
And here is an appealing cry to God, humbly acknow- 
ledging his nothingness, yet deprecating God's wrath : 
Oh remember that my life is wind; mine eye shall no 
more see good. The eye of him that hath seen me 
shall see me no more: thine eyes are upon me and I 
am not. The eye of the Lord turned upon us has 
brought to light all this hidden depravity, and caused 
our beauty to consume away ; for he searches the hearts 
and tries the reins of men, and " all things are naked 
and open" to his eye. Heb. iv. 13. We can endure the 
gaze of men, but not the eye of the Lord. 

Should we continually feel in its fullness what the 
few following verses express, we should indeed be fit 
for no more temporal work. But we know something 
of the vain hope here referred to, of finding relief and 
comfort in sleep, when our vileness and sins, that the 
day with its cares seems sometimes to partially hide 
from our view, have been set with fearful distinctness 
before us through scaring dreams and terrifying visions : 
Am la sea or a whale that thou settest a watch over 
?ne? When I say. My bed shall comfort me, my 
couch shall ease my complaint ; lhe?i thou scar est me 
with dreams, a?id terrifest ?ne through visions ; so 
that my soul chooseth stranglhig and death rather 
than life. I loathe it ; I would not live always; let 
me alo?ie,for my days are vanity. This is a complaint 
to God, spoken in the anguish of his spirit and bitter- 
ness of his soul. The sea is wonderfully great in ex- 
tent and depth, and might seem to claim the watch of 
the Almighty, whose power alone is sufficient to con- 
trol its proud waves and restrain them in their wild de- 
sire to leap over their boundaries. The whale is the 



SECOND ANSWER OF JOB. SS 

largest of animals, the strongest and perhaps the most 
fearful. We might think him to be worthy of God's 
attention to set a watch over him. But what is man 
that thou shouldst magnify him? and that thou 
shouldst set thy heart upon him? and that thou 
shouldst visit him every morning, and try him every 
moment? So little and poor is man ! so infinitely great 
is God ! The Psalmist notices the disparity : " Lord, 
what is man, that thou takest knowledge of him ? or 
the son of man, that thou visitest him?" Man is like 
to vanity : his days are as a shadow that passeth away. 
Ps. cxliv. 3, 4. Why not, then, take away a little of 
the sharpness of his rebuke, and leave the poor soul 
that is as nothing in his sight to a little respite ? So 
the blind anguish of grief inquires. And so David 
cries, "Remove thy stroke away from me !" 

I have sinned; what shall I do unto thee, O thou 
Preserver of men? There is enough here to refute the 
idea that Job was not conscious of being a sinner, or 
that he had not a right view of God. His confession is 
full, and the name by which he designates God shows 
a knowledge of his mercy. But the burden of sorrow 
and bitterness of anguish have a voice in appealing 
questions. His friends would readily undertake to tell 
him what to do, but they are ignorant of both man and 
God. Job can only look for relief through the pardon- 
ing mercy of the great Preserver of men : And why 
dost thou not pardon my transgression and take away 
mine iniquity? for now should I sleep in the dust; 
and thou shall seek me in the morning, but I shall 
not be. 



v. . 

FIRST ANSWER OF BILDAD. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said, 
How long wilt thou speak these things? and how long 
shall the words of thy mouth be like a strong wind? 

This man follows in the same track with Eliphaz, in 
whose school he has evidently learned his system of 
theology. He begins with the same accusing insinua- 
tions against Job, whose (to him) incomprehensible lan- 
guage of complaint, bitter cries of anguish and depre- 
catory appeals to God have stirred up his indignation. 
Hardly noticing, or but the more indignant if he does 
notice, the humble confessions of sin and self-abhorrence 
that are an element in all the sayings of Job, Bildad 
takes him as replying against God and against the jus- 
tice of his dealings with him, and asks, Doth God per- 
vert judgjnent, or doth the Almighty pervert justice? 
Most certainly not ; but of that judgment in Job's case 
Bildad has no understanding. Acts of wrong and in- 
justice on the part of Job and his children he regards 
as the cause of their death and of his other afflictions. 
If thy children have sinned against him, and he have 
cast the?n away for their transgression. According 
to this rule, we should judge those to be most sinful who 
56 



FIRST ANSWER OF BILDAD. 57 

die earliest, and those who are longest spared to be the 
best, and that to be afflicted by the death of children or 
relatives is sure evidence of guilt. In this sense, how- 
ever, not only has Job said there was no cause, saying, 
He multiplieth my wounds without cause, but the 
Lord declared the same to Satan, ii. 3. The almost 
insupportable burden of a corrupt nature, the pain of 
which is itself a righteous judgment of God, is un- 
known to the teacher of worldly doctrine. 

Bildad now presents his own system, with an intima- 
tion of the wickedness it implies on the part of Job : 
If thou wouldst seek unto God betimes, and make thy 
supplication to the Almighty ; if thou wert pure and 
upright, surely now he would awake for thee and 
make the habitation of thy righteousness prosperous. 
Here is a text well suited for those who proclaim a con- 
ditional system of salvation. They have no texts in the 
prophecies or writings of inspired men ; but these three 
men have furnished them with abundance of declara- 
tions that salvation depends upon men's works, with as 
much talk about the greatness of God as is necessary to 
give an air of solemnity and humiliation to their teach- 
ings who know nothing in reality about the power of 
God. The inspired men have not only clearly de- 
scribed the false doctrine for our w arning, but here we 
have the false teachers themselves speaking, as they do 
at the present time, with all boldness and vain confi- 
dence in the face of the servant of God, and raising up 
against him the ways of their destruction, xxx. 12. 
They were not inspired, but the record of their words 
is given by inspiration, and is therefore a true record 
of false doctrine. 

In these few words of Bildad their system is well set 



58 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

forth. The pupil in their school is first to become pure 
and upright, by which they mean to strictly observe the 
precepts of the law. This is what the strictly sincere 
legalist requires, the false doctrine of the requirement 
consisting in the assertion that it is possible for man to 
perform this, and therefore to be justified by the works 
of the law. But few now are as rigid in their demands 
of their converts, or in their own observance of the law, 
as the ancient Pharisees were. They allow far more 
latitude, and look to the general opinions and customs 
of men, rather than to the letter of the law, as the cri- 
terion of judgment. How little do any of them know 
about that perfect purity and uprightness which any 
must possess before they can find favor in the sight of 
God ! The first glimpse of that infinite holiness which 
the law of God demands kills any man to any hope in 
his own works, and shows the necessity of a Mediator, 
and " the blessedness of the man unto whom God im- 
puteth righteousness without works." Rom. iv. 6. 

Now Job was pure and upright even in their limited 
view of the matter, but this outward uprightness was 
but a manifestation of holy desires in the heart, of which 
they do not speak. The work of God in the heart im- 
plants these holy desires, which are but in the faintest 
manner expressed even in the most perfect abstinence 
from evil and performance of good deeds that any man 
was ever able to attain to ; so far beyond all human per- 
formance do these desires reach in their aspirations. 
To eschew evil and follow that which is right with all 
men is the endeavor of the Christian — not to entitle him 
to heaven, but because of the love of holiness within 
him. When he has done all, he feels himself but an un- 
profitable servant. Heaven is not earned in this way. 



FIRST ANSWER OF BILDAD. 59 

As Elihu asked Job, so we may well ask, what favor 
we have done God by our good deeds : " If thou be 
righteous, what givest thou him ?" Chap. xxxv. 7. It 
is for our own comfort that we are commanded and ex- 
horted to do that which is according to holiness. There 
is a reward, but it is in keeping the commandments, 
and vlq>\. for keeping them. Ps. xix. 11. If we go into 
the sunshine, the sun is not benefited by our act so as 
to owe us a reward, but we are rewarded in doing it. 
And it is so when we walk in the light of truth. 

But this legal or worldly system deals entirely in 
favors and rewards for goodness of action, appealing 
always to the corrupt, selfish principle of the heart, and 
ignorant of that desire for God's honor and glory which 
he makes uppermost in the hearts of his people. Hav- 
ing, according to their system, become pure, Job may 
now make supplications to God, and Bildad feels very 
sure that he will be heard on account of his fair stand- 
ing and be prospered. Though thy beginning was 
small, yet thy latter end should greatly increase. 
A false view. If Christ is our righteousness, we shall 
never increase in righteousness from the first moment 
of his revelation to our souls, although we may grow 
in grace and in the knowledge of him. We shall always 
be as poor in ourselves and no richer in him, because 
infinitely rich from the first. God does not awake for 
us and answer our supplications, as this false teacher 
declares, because we are pure and upright in ourselves, 
for that no man is. He hears and answers us only be- 
cause our supplications are presented in the name and 
through the merits of a glorious Mediator. 

For inquire, I fray thee, of the former age, and 
prefare thyself to the search of their fathers {for 



6o 



THE TRIAL OF JOB. 



we are but of yesterday, and know nothing, because 
our days upon earth are a shadow) : shall not they 
teach thee and tell thee, and utter words out of their 
heart? 

There seems to be here a clear intimation of the 
system of schools for theological study and instruction, 
like that of Gamaliel, where Saul of Tarsus studied, 
which have been brought to great perfection in the 
present age. His doctrine is to be learned and the truth of 
it to be proven by recourse to a former age, and a search 
of what the ancient fathers have left in tradition or on 
record. It is to them and to their words he commends 
Job's attention, instead of to God's word. He hastens, 
however, in parenthesis, to appear very humble as a 
reason for this advice, saying that we know nothing, 
because our days on earth are a shadow. He does not 
say this, however, from such an experience as has 
caused the saints to speak of the vanity of life, but to 
sustain his theory that it is necessary to study religion 
and receive aid from the accumulated knowledge of 
ages, since man's life is too short to attain the know- 
ledge by his own investigation that he ought to have. 
Concerning earthly science, both secular and religious, 
all this is true. But the religion of our Lord is dif- 
ferent, and of that it is not true. This, with its divine 
doctrine, can never be added to or improved. It can- 
not be learned of a former age, nor can fathers teach it 
to their children according to the flesh. No man can 
give a knowledge of it to another, neither can any ac- 
quire an understanding of it by the exercise of all his 
natural powers. It is known only by revelation. This 
revelation is not made to one man for another, but to 
each for himself, as the Apostle John teaches when he 



FIRST ANSWER OF BILDAD. 6 1 

says, U I have not written these things unto you because 
ye know not the truth, but because ye know it." " For 
the anointing ye have received teacheth you of all 
things." i John ii. 20-27. "It is written in the prophets, 
And they shall be all taught of God." John vi. 45 ; 
Isa. liv. 13. 

It is not, therefore, the truth of God that is to be 
learned in the manner proposed by Bildad. I have no 
doubt these things are recorded of -him and his friends 
that they may fully represent all false teachers, with all 
their humanly-devised plans to work for the Lord, in- 
cluding the schools where religion professes to be taught 
and where preachers are prepared, for which they have 
no authority in the Scriptures, no warrant in u the 
pattern shown in the Mount." " They profess that they 
know God, but in their works they deny him." Titus 
i. 16. 

Can the rush grow up without mire? By this ques- 
tion, with which he would show the necessity of his 
theory, he exhibits the nature of their foundation, that 
it is earthly. The remaining portion of the chapter 
enforces his teaching after the manner of Eliphaz, by 
dwelling upon the sad state of the hypocrite and the 
prosperity of the good man. We will have occasion 
hereafter to notice the hypocrite which Bildad has in 
view, and to contrast him with the real hypocrite before 
God. 
6 



VI. 
THIRD ANSWER OF JOB. 



CHAPTER IX. 

Then fob answered and said, I know it is so of a 
truth ; but how should man be just with God? 

The assertion that God will not cast away a perfect 
man, Job acknowledges to be true ; but where can that 
perfect man be found among all the sinful sons of Adam ? 
It is clear that Bildad only looks at the outward appear- 
ance, and concludes that a man is justified by his works, 
and that he who keeps the letter of the law, so far as it 
refers to words and acts, is a perfect man and accept- 
able in the sight of God. This is the feeling of the 
natural heart, full of vanity — that we must do something 
meritorious before we can expect to be happy hereafter ; 
and while in an unquickened state we do not question 
our ability to do all that is necessary, and even more 
than is barely necessary, to secure salvation ; by which 
superabundance of good works we expect to procure a 
higher place and more stars in our crown. 

But when we have learned that man is a depraved 
being, from the corrupt fountain of whose heart nothing 
good can flow, while God requires perfect holiness, we 
shall then ask with Job, in anxious wonder, How shall 
man be just with God? 
62 



THIRD ANSWER OF JOB. 63 

Here I will briefly suggest the doctrine concerning 
justification in answer to this question — the doctrine 
taught in the Bible, and written in the hearts of God's 
people, and by the experimental knowledge of which 
they try and judge every speech and doctrine, whether 
it be true or false. And should any reader of this page 
have opposed heretofore the doctrine of salvation by 
sovereign, free and discriminating grace, may the Lord 
grant' him now to see it as the only way, and as what 
he has indeed experienced, though not until now un- 
derstood, and to rejoice in seeing all apparent contra- 
dictions vanish and beautiful harmony appear through 
all the Scriptures ! 

Since man has broken God's holy law, justice de- 
mands that he should die. Being guilty, nothing that 
he himself can do can atone for the crime, and so he 
cannot be pronounced just. So the convicted soul cor- 
rectly reasons. He cannot see how a clean thing can 
be brought out of an unclean, or a work so good and 
perfect as to satisfy a holy law come from a corrupt 
heart. He cannot see how an infinitely holy God can 
receive an unholy, polluted being into his presence and 
favor. In all this the poor sinner reasons in harmony 
with the teachings of Scripture : " Be ye holy, for I 
am holy," saith the Lord. 1 Peter i. 15. "Without ho- 
liness no man shall see the Lord." Heb. xii. 14. " The 
Lord looked down from heaven upon the children 
of men, to see if there were any that did understand 
and seek God. They are all gone aside ; they are alto- 
gether become filthy ; there is none that doeth good — 
no, not one." Ps. xiv. 2, 3. " There is none right- 
eous — no, not one." Rom. iii. 10. "In thy sight shall 
no flesh living be justified." Ps. cxliii. 2. "Knowing 



64 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

that a man is not justified by the works of the law." 
Gal. ii. 16. 

Christ came to do for his people and to be unto them 
all that was needed. He saved them from their sins 
by bearing them himself. " His name shall be called 
Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins." 
Matt. i. 21. To them he gives spiritual life, and faith 
to see and know him as their Saviour ; and by this faith 
they receive him as their righteousness, holiness, per- 
fection. Those who profess to regard him as their Sa- 
viour, and yet hold that anything whatever on the part 
of the creature is necessary as a condition of justifica- 
tion and spiritual life, are as far from receiving him as the 
Pharisees were, resting not upon him, but upon the per- 
formance of that condition. He is believed and trusted 
by his people as their complete Saviour, who has not 
only freed them from the law, but will bring them to 
rest in him and be eternally blessed. 

With this blessed hope they remain in the body, and 
have still to mourn. Here is what appears so contra- 
dictory to the world, that they speak of being perfect 
as those must be who shall inherit glory, and yet com- 
plain of indwelling sin. But their perfection is in 
Christ, "who has given them the earnest of the Spirit," 
and in themselves they see more and more of that need 
which makes him more precious to them. 

As Job asks, How should man be just with God? 
his mind seems to be dwelling upon the essential and 
absolute sovereignty and power of the Almighty, and 
his supreme right to do what he will. He refers to the 
great things fast finding out, yea, and wonders 
without number, which manifest his wisdom and 
mighty strength, who is yet invisible himself to mortal 



THIRD ANSWER OF JOB. 65 

sight. Lo, he goeth by me and I see him not; he 
passeth on also, but I perceive him not. Now here 
is a being absolutely independent, inhabiting his own 
eternity and dwelling in unapproachable glory. Who 
can question him as to what he has chosen to do? 
Who can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest 
thou ? If God will not withdraw his anger, the proud 
helpers do stoop under him. How ?7iuch less shall I 
answer him and choose out my words to reason with 
him? whom, though I were righteous, yet would I 
not answer, but I would make supplication to my 
Judge. By proud helpers may be understood mighty 
potentates of the earth, or those who boast proudly of 
their power to help God. Such a view does Job have 
of his nothingness as a man in the sight of God that 
even if he were conscious of no sin, if he were as Adam 
before the fall, righteous as a natural man, yet he feels 
that he could not boast himself before God, nor answer 
as an equal in any sense, but that it would still be his 
to make supplication. How very different his tone 
here from that of those who deem God indebted to them 
for their goodness and who question his right to punish 
men, saying that he would be unrighteous to take ven- 
geance (Rom. iii. 5), since none can overthrow his 
counsel ; and ask, " Why doth he yet find fault, for 
who hath resisted his will?" Rom. ix. 19. This spirit 
of humble submission to the mighty God characterizes 
the child of grace, but it is not his carnal nature that 
feels it, and so we have trouble and warfare. 

If I had called and he had answered me, yet 

would I not believe that he had hearkened unto my 

voice. For he breaketh me with a tempest, and mul- 

tiplieth my wounds without cause. While this may 

6* E 1 



06 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

seem like an extravagant expression of his own insig- 
nificance in the sight of God, there is a truth pre- 
sented that all have experienced in regard to the way 
in which God answers our prayers. We pray for peace, 
comfort, protection : he answers, but it is often 

" In such a way 
As almost drives us to despair ;" 

and we cannot realize that he has harkened to our 
voice, even while faith assures us that his severe deal- 
ing with us is really but to bring us to the enjoyment 
of what we have spiritually desired. He sends afflic- 
tion and sorrow upon us, and brings us through that 
great tribulation which lies between us and the king- 
dom. Acts xiv. 22. He multiplieth my wounds with- 
out cause — without such cause as the world could see, 
and as his friends imagine. Why should the nation of 
Israel have been selected for great sufferings above 
other nations? Why should the people of God have 
so much greater affliction in this world than others? so 
that " if in this life only we have hope, we are of all 
men most miserable ?" Men cannot answer these ques- 
tions. God's ways are not their ways. 

If I justify myself, mine own mouth shall condemn 
me : if I say I am perfect, it shall also prove me per- 
verse. To follow the counsel and doctrine of his 
friends would be to justify himself. But man cannot 
open his mouth without manifesting the depravity of 
his nature. How blind are those who profess to hav T 6 
attained a state of sanctification, as they call it, or per- 
fection in the flesh ! Their own mouth condemns them. 

Though I were perfect — without any act of trans- 
gression, having thoroughly kept himself from any sin- 



THIRD ANSWER OF JOB. 6>] 

ful thought even, as the saints ardently long to do — 
yet would I not know my soul; I would despise my 
life. This repeats what we have already shown, that 
his trouble lies deeper than can appear to the outward 
eye, or even to the natural understanding — at the very 
fountain of life. 

In all this he has been presenting the true estimation 
of both God and man which we receive in our expe- 
rience, and which contradicts what Bildad has said. 
Now he expressly contradicts his principal theory, 
which is asserted in all their speeches, that the perfect 
man receives a worldly protection and prosperity, while 
those who do wickedly are destroyed : This is one 
thing, therefore I said it. He destroy eth the perfect 
and the wicked. If the scourge slay suddenly ', he 
will laugh at the trial of the innoce?it. Is not this 
witnessed continually? Do the good and estimable es- 
cape the ravages of war and famine and pestilence? 
Are only those whom all men regard as wicked de- 
stroyed ? Yet we hear a good deal about temporal af- 
flictions as judgments for sin. Job has no doubt of 
God's predestinating decree, and so speaks of all the 
destruction as coming from him. Instead of the inno- 
cent being spared, as they have insisted in referring to 
the loss of his children, he declares that the earth is 
given into the hand of the wicked; he covereth the 
faces of the judges thereof; if not, where and who 
is he I And this seems from Scripture to be true. 

Again he refers to his trouble and to the swift hope- 
lessness of his days, and continues : If I say, I will 
forget my complaint, I will leave off my heaviness 
and comfort myself; I am afraid of all my sorrows; 
I know that thou wilt not hold me innocent. How is 



68 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

it possible for one to leave oft' heaviness that is upon 
him? Those who do not feel any trouble may chide 
the afflicted for grieving, and advise him to be com- 
forted ; but is it not to be supposed that he would be 
comforted if he could? But suppose he should say he 
would forget and leave off complaining, would that re- 
move the sorrow? He would speak falsely in pretend- 
ing to comfort while all his sorrows stare him in the 
face. He knows, too, that in the greatness of his 
knowledge God has sent them, and not without reason, 
for they are but the just desert of so vile and feeble a 
worm as he. Though in the sight of men he is not 
guilty, having committed no wrongful act, yet in the 
sight of God he is not innocent. But the sense of this 
is, that God would not hold him innocent should he 
deny that he had sorrow. 

Only he whose sorrows are on account of a deceitful 
and depraved nature, and who, vainly striving to think 
he is not so entirely corrupt, and hoping from day to 
day that he will be able to prove his self-distrust and 
his fears of being utterly vile, groundless, sees his sor- 
rows continually revived, and starts up from troubled 
sleep and harassing dreams with all the lurking but 
all-pervading evil of his heart and life looking boldly 
and with cold triumph upon him, — only he can know 
the full force of this expression : / am afraid of all 
my sorrows. 

If I be wicked, why then labor I in vain? A 
brief but conclusive answer to the doctrine of his 
three friends, for how can a wicked man do that which 
will make him innocent? Not that he acknowledges 
their charge of wickedness, but if it were true, then 
their counsel would be proven vain. If I wash my- 



THIRD ANSWER OF JOB. 69 

self with snow-water, and make my hands ?iever so 
clean; yet shall thou plunge ?ne in the ditch, and 
mi?ze own clothes shall abhor 77ie. God does not suffer 
his people to become pure in their own esteem by their 
good works, as the hypocrites can, washing themselves 
clean of all their iniquity, and presenting themselves 
boldly before him in their own righteousness, and say- 
ing, " Open unto us ; have we not in thy name done 
many wonderful works?" His people shall be kept re- 
minded of their depravity. If they become vainly con- 
fident and pleased with themselves, he will so leave 
them to manifest the corruptions of the heart, as he did 
Peter, that they shall more than ever abhor themselves. 

For he is not a man, as I am, that I should answer 
him, and that we should come together to judgment. 
Neither is there any daysman betwixt us, that might 
lay his hand upon us both. 

Here, in this chapter, is an experimental view of our 
state when afflicted for sin, while as yet our Daysman, 
or Mediator, has not appeared to reconcile us to God 
by taking away sin. Here is the state and condition 
of Zion under the law. The people of God saw the ne- 
cessity of a Redeemer, and their faith laid hold of the 
promise of one, but he had not yet come. When he 
should come they would no longer be under the law, 
for " he is the end of the law." When he appears to 
each of the saints, he brings freedom from the bondage 
of the law and of sin. Now, when the bondage of sin 
and of the law is upon us, though we may be assured 
by faith that our Redeemer lives, yet he is not experi- 
mentally with us. We cannot feel his reconciling 
presence laying his hand upon both God and us and 
making peace ; and it is then that we are left to con- 



70 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

template the infinite disparity between God and us of 
which Job has spoken throughout this chapter, and to 
have great distress. While this is especially to be re- 
garded as the expression of the Church under the law, 
before our Daysman appeared, it thus also speaks the 
experience of all under that darkness which comes upon 
them when he withdraws his face. 

Let him take his rod away from me, and let not 
his fear teri'ify me. Then would I speak, and not 
fear him ; but it is not so with me. 

Like Jeremiah, he is the man who has seen affliction 
by the rod of his wrath. Lam. iii. I. Under this afflic- 
tion how many questioning thoughts arise in the heart 
concerning God's ways which we are afraid to even 
harbor, much less to utter, although we hear many who 
profess to be godly, boldly avowing the whole principle 
from which such thoughts arise as a part of their doc- 
trine ! Here is the difference, however : we acknow- 
ledge that he has done and was right in doing what we 
feebly wonder at while we suffer. They deny that he 
has done it, and say that he would not be just in doing 
so. What it is that is referred to will partially appear 
in the next chapter. 



CHAPTER X. 

My soul is weary of life; I will leave my co?nplaint 
upon myself; I will speak in the bitterness of my 
soul. 

Although the fear of God prevented him from speak- 
ing the feelings of his heart before, yet now increased 
suffering has seemed to force them into voice. The 



THIRD ANSWER OF JOB. 7 1 

questioning thoughts concerning God's ways toward 
men, who are the work of his hand, are in our finite 
and carnal minds, and Job gives them utterance that 
we shall see them. ^ They are rebuked in God's people 
by his voice out of the whirlwind, and subdued by the 
spirit of grace. / will say unto God, Do not con- 
demn me; show me wherefore thou contendest with 
me. Do his friends regard this as a reply against God ? 
as an implication of wrong and injustice on his part? 
They little know what a cry of bitterness is — a com- 
plaint of a soul weary of life. This is the appealing 
cry of a worm that is crushed. Helpless and broken, 
shall it not turn and writhe ? Does he not in his very 
cry acknowledge his nothingness ? Yea, he makes his 
very insignificance in the sight of God the ground of 
his appeal. 

He looks back to the beginning ; he beholds God in 
awful and sublime majesty reigning in his unknown 
eternity, in unfathomable power and greatness ; and 
while he acknowledges his right and wisdom and jus- 
tice in whatever he has done, yet under this heavy 
weight of oppression which comes from that very view 
of God he wonders, and would know something of the 
hidden reasons that are with him ; why he has made 
man as he has, and fashioned him together round 
about but to destroy him. For what inscrutable pur- 
pose does he contend thus with a feeble worm of the 
dust? Have any of the afflicted family represented by 
Job been without the consciousness of such wondering 
thoughts as these? It is not from a rebellious spirit 
against the truth of God that they arise — not, at least, 
such rebelliousness as the world could recognize, as 
Job's friends charge him with. But they arise from 



72 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

our tried human weakness, and God alone, and noi 
man, is able to reprove them. 

Is it good unto thee that thou shouldst oppress, that 
thou shouldst despise the work of thy ha?zds, and shine 
upon the counsel of the wicked? The Church, the 
people of God, are in a peculiar sense the work of his 
hands. He has formed them for himself (Isa. xliii. 7, 
21) ; and it is they who feel oppression and suffer in 
the world, while the wicked " spring as the grass" and 
prosper in the world ; and in his vain struggles, Job in- 
quires what benefit our suffering can be to God, and 
wonders for the reason. So David questioned, and 
was envious at the foolish when he saw the prosperity 
of the wicked, while the people of God had waters of 
a full cup wrung out to them. But he afterward con- 
fessed his foolishness and ignorance, as Job also did, 
and despised himself for it. Ps. lxxiii. 3-22. 

Hast thou eyes offesh, or seest thou as man seeth? 
Are thy days as the days of ?nan? Are thy years as 
marts days, that thou inquirest after mine iniquity 
and searchest after ?ny sin? Through such bitter 
questionings, such struggles of soul, such trials of mind, 
are we finally brought up out of our weakness and cor- 
ruption to the full knowledge of the glory of God. And 
I will here repeat that while this is from the weakness 
and ignorance of our tried and suffering nature, and is 
part of that which we abhor, yet it is what only God's 
people feel. Other saints, of whose experience we have 
an inspired record, have felt and expressed the same, 
and it is recognized in the sons of Jacob by the Lord in 
many of his reproofs to them through the prophets. 
Did Job conceal these thoughts and profess himself 
without them, then would he prove himself the hvpo- 



THIRD ANSWER OF JOB. 73 

crite his friends have falsely pronounced him. They 
only say and do those things which they think will 
have an appearance of goodness and piety, and are 
therefore the real hypocrites. The convicted sinner 
speaks what he feels, and yet trusts in God whom he 
fears, and is not a hypocrite. 

Thou knowest that I am not wicked. In the Scrip- 
ture the word w T icked seems to be mainly applied to 
those who hate God : " Then shall that wicked be re- 
vealed whom the Lord shall consume," etc. 2 Thess. 
ii. 8. David prays in spirit for the destruction of the 
wicked, the enemies of God, and he often declares with 
the same confidence as Job that he is not wicked, while 
at the same time confessing his sins and vileness. Job 
continues his appeals and supplications : Remember, 
I beseech thee, that thou hast ?nade me as the clay; and 
wilt thou bring me into dust again? Yet, while con- 
templating the wonder that God should have granted 
him life and favor, and by his visitations have preserved 
his spirit and still afflict him so sorely, he acknowledges, 
And these things hast thou hid in thine heart; I 
know that this is with thee. Faith still assures us that 
He who has all power and wisdom does nothing with- 
out an infinitely good and wise purpose, though that 
purpose be hidden from our view. 

But oh what trials are these ! How can we endure 
them ? Thou renewest thy witnesses against me a?id 
increasest thine indignation upon me. As the Psalm- 
ist says, " Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our 
secret sins in the light of thy countenance." " Thy 
wrath lieth hard upon me, and thou hast afflicted me 
with all thy waves." a Lord, why castest thou off my 
soul? why hidest thou thy face from me?" "Thy 
7 



74 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

fierce wrath goeth over me." Ps. lxxxviii. 7, 14, 16. 
Wherefore, then, hast thou brought me forth out of 
the womb? Oh that I had given up the ghost, and 
no eye had seen me I Whether wicked or righteous, 
still Job will not lift up his head in the presence of so 
mighty a God. He is full of confusion. What an un- 
equal war would this seem — the Mighty One against a 
poor worm, against a broken leaf! Are not my days 
few? Cease, then, and let me alone, that I may take 
comfort a little before I go whence I shall not return, 
even to the land of darkness and the shadow of death 
— a land of darkness as darkness itself; and the 
shadow of death without any order, and where the 
light is as darkness. Only under that extremity of 
sorrow that makes one weary of life could the imagina- 
tion picture such vague but deep gloom as the end of 
this mortality of ours, which, with all its troubles and 
fears and anguish, shall be swallowed up. David cries, 
as Job does here, " Oh spare me, that I may recover 
strength before I go hence and be no more." Ps. xxxix. 

13- 

In this extreme grief we see only the darkness that 
closes about the mortal part of us. When the light of 
immortality appears our sorrow flies away. 




VII. 

FIRST ANSWER OF ZOPHAR. 



CHAPTER XI. 

Zophar the Naamathite now takes his turn to speak 
in this war of the many with one. He enters the con- 
test even more hotly than either of his companions, 
fiercely charges Job with lying, and seems confident 
that he shall succeed in answering the multitude of 
words and make him ashamed : Should not the multi- 
tude of words be answered? and should a man full 
of talk be justified? Should thy lies make men hold 
their peace? and when thou mockest shall no man 
make thee ashamed? 

Here, then, we should expect to find the man who 
will bring forth something new, and by forcible argu- 
ments, which his friends have failed to produce, clearly 
demonstrate the error of Job and justify the bitter de- 
nunciations they have uttered against him. How are 
we disappointed, then, after this bold and confident be- 
ginning, to follow him over the same Arminian ground 
which they have taken, closing up with a similar de- 
scription of the same worldly security and comfort of 
the same worldly good man, who has prepared his own 
heart and freed himself from iniquity ! 

Por thou hast said, My doctrine is pure, and I am 

75 



7^ THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

clean in thine eyes. Here he has in part understood 
Job rightly, in part misunderstood and in part misrep- 
resented him. He has understood him to say that his 
doctrine is pure, and this is true, for it is the doctrine 
of God. It declares the holiness and justice of God, 
the sinfulness of man and the only way of salvation 
through a Mediator. Through this doctrine the Church, 
and each member thereof, are presented perfect ; but 
this purity and perfection are not in himself, but in and 
through the Redeemer. Here is where Zophar and 
all the world misunderstand the confidence of those 
who hold and rejoice in the truth. When the Christian 
asserts his assurance that his doctrine is pure, they un- 
derstand him to be boasting of the correctness of what 
his own wisdom has attained ; and when he tells of his 
hope that he is of that Church which is " holy and 
without blame before God in love," they will still de- 
clare that he is boasting of his natural or self-acquired 
perfection. All the preparation of man for heaven they 
regard as to be made by himself; and it seems impos- 
sible to get into their minds an idea of any other kind 
of preparation. So, notwithstanding the clearness of 
Job's speech upon this point, they will still insist that 
he is boasting before God. The idea of that absolute 
perfection which God requires, and which is found only 
in Christ, does not enter into their theory of religion. 
Their view and doctrine is, that God will accept those 
who do well and give them such a place as their merits 
deserve, but which, of course, will be far below his 
own holiness and greatness. They are therefore greatly 
indignant to hear the Christian speak of that absolute 
perfection and heavenly purity in which he expects to 
enter the presence of the Holy One, and for the present 



FIRST ANSWER OF ZOPHAR. 77 

possession of which, by faith in Christ, he hopes and 
believes that God looks with loving favor upon him. 
This is the great difficulty which natural men find in 
the speech of Job, that he should confess his vileness 
in terms which they are far too proud and vain to use 
in reference to themselves, and yet should loftily assert 
his purity and excellence. This seems like a contradic- 
tion, and angers them. Yet it is found throughout the 
psalms of David and the words of the prophets, and is 
the truth. 

The people of God are holy as he is holy, else they 
could never enter his presence. This holiness has been 
wrought for them by the Redeemer, whose salvation is 
complete, and is made known to them and given to them 
freely, unconditionally, and without any regard to their 
standing and works in the sight of men. For the 
apostle declares that God hath saved us and called us 
with a holy calling, not according to our works, but 
according to his own purpose and grace, which was 
given us in Christ before the world began. 2 Tim. i. 9. 
They are stripped of all their own merits ; their wis- 
dom becomes foolishness in their view, their righteous- 
ness filthy rags, and all their beauty consumes away 
like a moth ; and, standing thus naked and destitute, 
they are clothed with the garments of salvation and 
covered with the robe of righteousness. 

Elihu hereafter in his reproofs to Job charges him 
with saying, " I am clean without transgression," and 
not, " I am clean in thine eyes," as Zophar has charged. 
This more correctly states the truth of his declaration. 
He has not transgressed by committing those deeds 
which the law of God prohibits. And Elihu does not 
dispute him in his reproof. But of this more particu- 
7 * 



78 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

larly hereafter. Yet we will note here that as the per- 
fect and upright man, as the Church under the law, 
Job may be understood to have kept the law perfectly 
in the strictness of the letter of it, so that he could say, 
" I am clean without transgression ;" and yet he would 
be the same corrupt being by nature, for the law can- 
not give life, nor by its works can any be justified, but 
rather " by the law is the knowledge of sin." 

But oh that God would show thee the secrets of 
wisdom, that they are double to that which is I Know 
therefore that God exacteth of thee less than thine 
iniquity deserveth. Still dwelling upon the natural 
idea that God makes us atone for our sins in part by 
suffering, and then pardons the rest and takes us to 
heaven — that all of Job's affliction is in part punish- 
ment, but is less than his iniquity deserves. Now the 
servant of God acknowledges his great forbearance, 
saying, " He hath not dealt with us after our sins, nor 
rewarded us according to our iniquities." Ps. ciii. 10. 
This would seem to confirm Zophar's expression as 
truth, yet the difference is clear. Zophar is speaking 
of what the sins of another man deserve : David speaks 
of his own. Under a sense of the greatness of his iniqui- 
ties the poor sinner witnesses the tender compassion of 
God in withholding the punishment due, not to an- 
other's, but to his own, transgression. But this forbear- 
ance is not shown at the expense of justice. Zophar 
manifests no recognition of true justice on the part of 
God in intimating that he exacts of Job only part of 
what is due, and will pardon the rest if he will prepare 
his heart. Our God " is a just God and a Saviour." 
His justice demands every jot and tittle, and has received 
all at the hands of our Surety. The demands of jus- 



FIRST ANSWER OF ZOPHAR. 79 

tice, therefore, being satisfied, mercy can be extended 
to those for whom Christ stood as Surety ; as he has 
said by the prophet, " Therefore will he be exalted 
that he may have mercy" (Isa. xxx. 18), referring to the 
exaltation of the Saviour. This mercy is realized and 
acknowledged as expressed in the language of David. 
Concerning the dealing of God with them as children 
when they err from his ways, we shall speak in connec- 
tion with Elihu's answer. 

Canst thou by searching Jind out God? Canst 
thou Jind out the Almighty to perfection ? This is 
one of those sentences sometimes quoted as inspired 
Scripture ; but nothing that they have said is to be re- 
ceived as Scripture, for God says they have not spoken 
of him the thing that is right, like his servant Job. In 
asking this question, Zophar implies that men can search 
and find out something — all that they are to know — 
though it will be so little in comparison with all the 
secrets of wisdom that it will be as nothing. Now man 
in his natural state does not even seek after God. Ps. 
xiv. 2. He reveals himself to whom he will, and says, 
" I am found of them that sought me not ; I am made 
manifest to them that asked not after me." Rom. x. 20 ; 
Isa. lxv. 1. The things of God are taught by the Spirit, 
who " searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God." 
1 Cor. ii. 10. " For God, who commanded the light to 
shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts to give 
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the 
face of Jesus Christ." 2 Cor. iv. 6. " And no man 
knoweth who the Father is but the Son, and he to 
whom the Son will reveal him." Luke x. 22. Those 
unto whom this revelation is made do see the bright- 
ness of the Father's glory, are filled with all the fullness 



So THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

of God, and presented perfect in Christ. Eph. iii. 19; 
Col. i. 28. But of this Zophar makes no mention. 
Well might Job exclaim, How then comfort ye me in 
vain, seeing in your answers there remaineth false- 
hood ? 

If thou prepare thy heart and stretch out thy hand 
toward him; if iniquity be in thy hand, put it far 
away, and let not wickedness dwell in thy tabernacles. 
For then shall thou lift up thy face without spot; 
yea, thou shall be steadfast and shall not fear. Here 
is Zophar's system, just like that of his friends. But 
" The preparation of the heart in man and the answer 
of the tongue is from the Lord." Prov. xvi. 1. All 
these things that Job is exhorted to do, with far more, 
God has promised in the new covenant to perform for 
his people unconditionally. Jer. xxxi. 31-34 ; xxxii. 40 ; 
Ezek. xxxiv. 25-30 ; xxxvii. 26. 

We have now heard each of these three pretended 
friends of Job, and shall hear nothing new from them 
in all they say hereafter. It is the same false doctrine 
repeated from that day to this. The world is full of it. 
But it has no comfort for the poor sinner. On the con- 
trary, he is greatly oppressed by it, and the preaching 
of it to him makes his hungry soul empty, as the prodi- 
gal's was when he tried to feed upon the husks which 
the swine did eat. 



5v?^ 






VIII. 
FOURTH ANSWER OF JOB. 



CHAPTER XII. 

No doubt but ye are the people, and wisdom shall 
die with you. An expression of strong irony, in which 
Job conveys his sense of their foolishness in speaking 
so confidently upon a subject of which they are igno- 
rant, and the vexation of soul that their false doctrine 
causes him. But I have understanding, as well as 
you ; I am not inferior to you ; yea, who knoweth not 
such things as these ? He is their equal in natural 
understanding, and needs no instruction from them in 
regard to such literal truths as they speak. Of what 
profit is it to tell the poor sinner that God is great and 
wise, and that it would be a great benefit to him to be 
good? He already knows it better than his self-ap- 
pointed teacher, for God has taught him the knowledge 
of his holiness and wisdom, so as no words of man can 
teach any one, and his own want of holiness. Well 
might Job exclaim, " How hast thou helped him that is 
without strength ?" The true preaching is to show how 
God has saved those who have no goodness of their 
own and no heart to seek his face till he gives it. 
u Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his 

F 81 



82 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

spots? Then may ye also do good that are accustomed 
to do evil." Jer. xiii. 23. 

/ am as one mocked of his neighbor, who calleth 
upon God and he answer eth him ; the just, upright 
?nan is laughed to scorn. In this and the two follow- 
ing verses, Job utters a truth which he afterward dwells 
more fully upon, and which the Psalmist and prophets 
have often spoken of concerning the appearance of 
greater prosperity and favor with God which the ene- 
mies of truth have as compared with the people of God. 
According to the explanation of our Saviour, the neigh- 
bor is one who comforts and helps another, having 
brotherly affection and kindness. Luke x. 33. False 
teachers profess to be helpers or neighbors to the poor 
and distressed, but they only mock or disappoint the 
longing desires of their poverty and distress by giving 
vain words in which there is no comfort. Yet these 
false professors call upon God in form with great ap- 
parent zeal in sight of men, in whose sight also God 
appears to answer, them. They ask for worldly goods, 
worldly satisfaction in their religion, worldly glory ; and 
they have it. Their prosperity is compared to the 
spreading of a green bay tree. Ps. xxxvii. 35. " They 
are not in trouble as other men." " Their eyes stand 
out with fatness ; they have more than heart can wish." 
" Behold, these are the ungodly who prosper in the 
world; they increase in riches." Ps. lxxiii. 5, 7, 12. 
This difference is spoken concerning their religion. 
The prosperity of the Church of God is not of a worldly 
kind, nor to be recognized by men. But it is only in 
the world and after a worldly fashion that Antichrist 
does prosper, and they that teach worldly doctrine are 
enlarged in the sight of men. " They are of the world, 



FOURTH ANSWER OF JOB. 83 

therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth 
them." 1 John iv. 5. Job was experiencing and repre- 
senting the affliction which is the lot of the righteous 
in the world, and at the same time witnessing the 
wealthy state and self-complacent content of those who 
hate the truth. 

He that is ready to slip with his feet is as a la?7ip 
despised in the thought of him that is at ease. The 
saint is the one who is ready to slip with his feet. He 
has been so thoroughly taught his own weakness that 
he has no confidence in himself, but must appeal to 
God for help, as the Psalmist did : " Thou hast deliv- 
ered my soul from death ; wilt thou not also deliver my 
feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the 
light of the living?" Ps. lvi. 13. For this they are de- 
spised by those who, having had no trouble on account 
of their sins, are at ease, confiding in their own strength 
and pleased with their comeliness. ; ' When my foot 
slippeth they magnify themselves against me. For I 
am ready to halt, and my sorrow is continually before 
me." Ps. xxxviii. 16, 17. Acknowledging his liability 
to err, and yet professing to be of those who are called 
lights in the world, he is held in contempt by the proud 
and is as a lamp despised. They see no reason w r hy 
one should look for acceptance with God except on the 
ground of goodness in himself, and should one of the 
saints slip with his feet, they take occasion to blaspheme 
the name of God and his doctrine. 2 Sam. xii. 14. 
The saints are exhorted to watch, therefore, and take 
heed to their way, continuing instant in prayer. 

The tabernacles of robbers prosper, and they that 
provoke God are secure, into whose hand God bring- 
eth abundantly. The teachers of false doctrine rob 



84 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

God of his glory (in word) and his children of comfort. 
It would seem hard to men now to call them robbers, 
for they appear eminently pious ; but a careful survey 
of their tabernacles, their doctrine and their secret 
works will show the name to be well applied. They 
appear secure in their way, and it appears, as we have 
shown, that God brings into their hands abundantly. 
Job seems, like David, to have been envious at the fool- 
ish when he saw the prosperity of the wicked. Ps. lxxiii. 
2. But both were reproved for this envy by the Lord — 
David when he went into the sanctuary and saw the 
end of the wicked, and Job when the Lord showed him 
his own great wisdom in his answer out of the whirl- 
wind. 

But Job's faith in God is not shaken. He knows 
God is not disappointed or deceived. Even if we ap- 
pealed to the beasts, or the birds of the air, or to the 
earth, or the fishes of the sea, who knoiveth not in all 
these that the hand of the Lord hath wrought this? 
And throughout the remainder of this chapter he dwells 
upon the evidences of God's wisdom and strength, upon 
his wonderful works, expressing his assurance that 
nothing transpires contrary to his will, in whose hand 
is the soul of every living thing and the breath of all 
mankind ; that the deceived and the deceiver are his, 
and he does what he will with mighty princes as well 
as with all men. He discovereth deep things out of 
darkness, and bringeth out to light the shadow of 
death. The nations are enlarged and straitened again 
by him. He taketh away the heart of the chief 
of the people of the earth, and causeth them to wan- 
der in a wilderness where there is no way. They 
grope in the dark without light, and he ?naketh them 



FOURTH ANSWER OF JOB. 85 

to stagger like a drunken man. The words of Job 
are continually confirmed by other inspired Scriptures 
as the truth of God. Ps. cvii. 27, 40. 

Though Job's friends have appeared to exalt God so 
highly and with such ostentation of speech, this doc- 
trine of God's sovereign decree and supreme direction 
in all things, so plainly and decisively declared by Job, 
is the very doctrine they cannot abide. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Lo, mine eye hath seen all this, mine ear hath 
heard and understood it. What ye know, the same 
do I know also; I am not inferior to you. All the 
truth that the natural man can speak, which is merely 
within the scope of the natural understanding, is as 
well understood by the people of God as by them ; for 
all alike have the discernment and wisdom that is 
natural. But the saints have an understanding that 
God has given to them alone (John v. 20), and it is this 
spiritual understanding, with all the experiences of sor- 
row and joy that it creates, which the worldly teachers 
cannot minister to. It is above the reach of their wis- 
dom, which is of the world ; it finds no interest in their 
religion, which has only to do with their outward man. 
It can only be satisfied by communion with God, to 
whom the desires of the renewed soul rise. Surely I 
would speak to the Almighty, and I desire to reason 
with God. This desire his friends do not possess. 
They would study and philosophize about him, and en- 
deavor to search him out with their own minds, and ex- 

8 



86 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

pect to go on studying for ever. But the desire to 
reason with God, to hear the word from him, is not in 
their heart. It is only to his people God has given this 
desire, by saying to them, " Come and let us reason to- 
gether." Isa. i. 1 8. They know that from him alone 
can they learn how their sins, " though they be as scar- 
let, shall be white as snow, and though they be red like 
crimson, shall be as wool." 

But the natural man only looks to appear good in the 
eyes of men and in his own esteem, which is very easy 
until he is quickened, requiring only some outward re- 
strictions. And this vain show, this fig-leaf righteous- 
ness, they commend to the poor soul who has seen God 
and who stands naked before him ; and he says to them, 
But ye are forgers of lies, ye are all physicians of 
no value. Oh that ye would altogether hold your 
peace! and it should be your ivisdom. But there is 
no hope that they will hold their peace until God re- 
bukes them terribly, for they are too proud of what 
they have searched out and learned ; and they continue 
to hand out their poison for medicine (for the poison 
of asps is under their lips, Rom. iii. 13), willfully blind 
to its aggravating effects. 

Hear ?iow my reaso?iing, and hearken to the plead- 
ing of my lips. Will ye speak wickedly for God? and 
talk deceitfully for him ? Will ye accept his person ? 
will ye contend for God? Instead of simply speaking 
God's word, which his servants do, the false teacher 
speaks from his own imagination about God, and makes 
propositions in his name which he has never authorized, 
and attempts to explain away his too plain declarations, 
handling the word of God deceitfully. They teach 
that God has offered himself, and it is for us to accept 



FOURTH ANSWER OF JOB. 8j 

him and his terms ; and they would contend for him, 
as though he needed help and his doctrine needed 
apology, and they were able to render the service. 
They are wicked and deceitful in all their speech con- 
cerning him, speaking what they do not know, and 
talking of what they do not understand. Is it good 
that he should search you out? or as one man mocketh 
another, do ye so mock him ? He will surely reprove 
you, if ye do secretly accept persons. Let but the 
light of truth, or of God's face, shine down and expose 
all the feelings that underlie their false words, and what 
vanity and deceit would be seen ! 

God is no respecter of persons. The high and the 
low, the rich and the poor, the Jew and Gentile, the 
prince and the beggar, all stand on the same level in his 
sight. Yes, and the most excellent, naturally, with the 
most degraded, as they appear in the eyes of men. 
God looks deeper than men, and sees all the race of 
Adam alike lost in sin and depravity. He accepts no 
man's person. None can be acceptable in his sight. 
In Christ only are his chosen regarded with love and 
favor. But all who hold to the doctrine of the world 
must accept persons for God. Job in his present state 
was not good enough to be accepted in their sight. 
However they may try to hide it, this secret acceptance 
of persons appears in all they say. And God reproves 
it. He has sent no one out to win souls to him. How 
dare any vain mortal presume to engage in such a work? 
Shall not his excellency make you afraid? and his 
dread fall iifton you? When God appears in his 
excellent majesty to shake terribly the earth, these 
hypocritical teachers and professed helpers of God 
shall be terrified at the presence of Him whose person 



88 THE TRIAL C& JOB. 

the)' seem to think they have done him a favor by ac- 
cepting. 

But now Job turns from them, whose reme?nbrances, 
or the remembrance of whose words, are like unto 
ashes, saying", Hold your peace, let me alone, that I 
may speak, and let come on me what will. Where- 
fore do I take my Jlesh in my teeth and put my life 
in my hand? 

Do they suppose that it is in vain self-confidence that 
he thus makes his appeal to God ? that he has ceased 
to regard the Almighty with reverential fear and as 
just and holy, and that he expects to prove to him in 
argument that he has dealt unjustly with him? How 
little do they know the fearful perplexity of trouble and 
anguish which those feel who stand consciously in the 
great and dreadful presence of the all-wise and eternal 
God, while at the same time filled with a holy trust and 
confidence in him ! His faith is sorely tried, but it fails 
not. His trust in God is stronger than all agony, 
stronger than death. For this purpose was Satan 
allowed to afflict him, that God's power to keep him 
in his own fear and confidence should be manifest. 
Though he slay ?ne, yet will I trust in him. 

The trust of the saints in God is not a mere effort of 
the human will, liable to fluctuations and failure, but 
is wrought by him, and never can fail or be destroyed. 
We know we are unworthy of his favor, yet we trust 
in his mercy. We realize our nothingness, yet we 
can but trust in his loving-kindness. Darkness closes 
around us and we are in trouble, yet we still trust in 
him who created the darkness and has power to turn it 
to light. The gates of death appear just before us, and 
we see no reason why he should not cut us off; but 



FOURTH ANSWER OF JOB. 89 

what else is there for us? We must still trust, even 
though he slay us, and we fall down in humble submis- 
sion to his will. This is "the faith of the Son of God. ** 

But I will maintain mine own ways before him — 
not hiding his troubles, and pretending to have none ; 
nor concealing his sense of sin ; nor keeping out of sight 
his wondering thoughts concerning God's strange deal- 
ing with him ; nor stifling his complaints and gaining 
credit for making none when they are festering within 
him ; nor acknowledging that these afflictions are judg- 
ments for transgressions which he has not committed. 
Al^Jiis would be hypocrisy. 

Jod is looking, not for a reward for goodness, but 
for salvation from sin and affliction, and this salvation 
cannot be received from men. He also shall be my 
salvation, for a hypocrite shall not come before him. 
He will maintain his own ways, and not adopt those of 
his friends. His own ways w T ere before, and are now, 
the ways of truth and sound doctrine. 

Hear diligently my speech and my declaration with 
your ears. Behold, now, I have ordered my cause ; 
I know that I shall be justified. He seems to call 
their special attention to this particular declaration, 
which will astound them more than his former words. 
With all the apparent evidences of God's disapproval 
upon his very person, he yet is confident of being jus- 
tified. And it was so. In the end God justified him. 

As once before, so now, he appeals to God to with- 
draw his heavy and afflicting hand, and keep his dread 
from making him afraid : Then call thou and I will 
answer, or let me speak, and answer thou me. It is 
such expressions of his soul as these which are the sub- 
ject of God's reproof through Elihu, but not for such 



90 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

cause as his friends can see. They would deny what 
Job says and what he makes the subject of question. 
But God's reproof is to bring him into perfect submis- 
sion to his own holy will without question or complaint. 
How many are mine iniquities and sins? Make me 
to know my transgression and my sin. 

Not as though he had none, for with the Psalmist he 
would say, " They are more than the hairs of my head ; 
therefore my heart faileth me." Ps. xl. 12. But he 
would see them as God estimates them, and know the 
exceeding sinfulness of sin, and inquire for the secret 
reasons of God's so heavily afflicting him. Wherefore 
hidest thou thy face and holdest me for thine ene?ny? 
So David frequently inquires, "Lord, why castest thou 
off my soul ? why hidest thou thy face from me ? While 
I suffer thy terrors I am distracted." Ps. lxxxviii. 14 ; 
xiii. 1 ; xliv. 24. 

Wilt thou break a leaf driven to and fro? Wilt 
thou furstie the dry stubble? What an acknowledg- 
ment of his weakness and nothingness in the presence 
of so great a God ! How different his tone when speak- 
ing to the Almighty from that with which he addresses 
the opposers of the truth ! These are not expressions 
of a proud and rebellious spirit, but of humility. The 
rebellion of the wicked or the unquickened springs from 
self-esteem. They regard themselves as good, and so 
oppose the doctrine that shows man depraved. But 
Job acknowledges and deeply feels his unworthiness ; 
yet he wonders and questions concerning the dealing 
of God with so feeble a being, and in this shows the 
rebellion that arises from the carnal mind of the Chris- 
tian. For thou writest bitter things against me, a?id 
makest me to possess the iniquities of my youth. All 



FOURTH ANSWER OF JOB. 9 1 

that we have done and said, all our sins and foolishness 
of former years, are brought vividly before us when 
God would show us what manner of beings we are ; 
and we must look upon them as he sees them, so that 
we can never rest for any length of time in a thought 
that we are entitled to commendation for goodness. 
Such vain repose is always broken up, and only in the 
merit of a Mediator can we ever find peace. Thou 
puttest my feet also in the stocks, and lookest narrowly 
into all my paths; thou settest a frint upon the heels 
of my feet. We could seem to hide the vanity of our 
heart from our own eyes and from the eyes of men, and 
by diligently watching over our course become very 
good in our own esteem, running away from our former 
selves, and covering up our former traces. But God 
will not allow us to remain in self-deceit. Our feet are 
held fast while the light of truth shows all the iniquity 
of our steps, and our way is so marked that we cannot 
hide it. In these words Job has most vividly told what 
the child of God has felt in his experience, while his 
sins have been from time to time brought to his view, 
and while he has felt the eye of that God upon him who 
searches the hearts and tries the reins of men. The 
same is expressed by the Psalmist : " Thou hast set our 
iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy 
countenance." Ps. xc. 8. We are thus taught that 
nothing can be hidden from him. He knows man alto- 
gether, and makes him know himself in the way so 
forcibly depicted here : And he, as a rotten thing, 
consumeth as a garment that is moth-eaten. 



92 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and 
full of trouble. He cometh forth like a flower, and 
is cut down; he fleeth also as a shadow, and contin- 
ueth not. 

With what a mournful sound these words fall upon 
our ears, like the sad voice of the wind as it sighs 
among the branches of the pine ! How many thousands 
have repeated them after the old patriarch, unaccount- 
ably soothed by their touching pathos ! 

Oh what a mystery is this mortal existence of ours, 
with all that belongs to it ! How unfathomable ! We 
see men daily passing from our sight, one after another, 
and who knoweth concerning them any more? But 
when we look in upon ourselves the depth of the mys- 
tery is more clearly seen. We behold there those sor- 
rows of which we hear all men complain, and also 
those deeper and more delicate shades of grief and 
gloom which cannot be pictured in words, and that 
heaviness on account of sin which caused the Psalmist 
to exclaim, "My soul is full of troubles." Ps. lxxxviii. 
3. And what are these sorrows? Can we define and 
bound them ? And our transient joys : — what are they ? 
Can we explain their origin and nature ? Look back 
along the pathway of life, and can we see the begin- 
ning? Shadows close in, faint at first, then deeper and 
deeper, till memory is lost, as the eye is lost in the 
gathering mist of distance, yet with only distance to 
bar its view. How are we connected in our conscious- 
ness of sin with him who first walked the earth in the 
morning of Time, and by whose fall sin and sorrow 



FOURTH ANSWER OF JOB. 93 

arid death fell upon all his race? What can we tell of 
ourselves but that we live and mourn ? What a mystery, 
even to the saint, is that change that is to come upon us ! 
We wonder and are startled and grieved when we wit- 
ness the death of another, but it is only when we are 
able to contemplate our own death that the shadows of 
the mystery are clearly presented. " He bringeth to 
light the shadows of death." What will that change 
be ? How will our deep grief for sin all be carried 
away for ever by it? What part of our present being 
will vanish and be lost? Nothing that we would wish 
to preserve, yet we are lost in wonder. Faith points to 
our blessed Saviour, who is " unto us a place of broad 
rivers and streams," and we rest in him, and know that 
we shall be satisfied when we awake with his likeness. 
But there is the mystery still. '• Behold !" says the 
apostle, " I show you a mystery." Nor can we turn 
our minds away from that mystery, though it is in- 
finitely beyond the reach of our mortal powers. 

While Job thus contemplates man in his narrowly- 
bounded state, with his limited knowledge and powers, 
surrounded by shadows of mystery, full of sin and 
trouble and fleeting as a shadow, and then looks at the 
greatness and power of the eternal God, he asks in 
wonder, And dost thou open thine eyes upon such an 
one, a?zd br ingest me into judgment with thee? God 
requires truth in the inward parts, and we cannot but 
feel the force of that requirement and that we ought to 
be holy, although we know there is no element of good- 
ness in our fallen nature. Who can bring a clean thing 
out of an unclean? not one. Why r then, should we 
feel so forcibly the judgment of God against us, and 
have nothing to answer, since man is but the creature 



94 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

of God's power? Though we know that God is above 
all, and numbers all our steps, yet we cannot turn from 
feeling, as he brings us into judgment with him, deeply- 
burdened with a sense of our frailty and vileness. And 
what a wonder does this appear to our feeble under- 
standing ! Seeing his days are determined, the num- 
ber of his months are with thee, thou hast appointed 
his bounds that he cannot pass, Job appealingly cries, 
Turn from him that he may rest, till he accomplish, 
as an hireling, his day. This is an utterance of igno- 
rance, and shows the short-sightedness of our nature, 
in reference to the ways of God. It says, Since God 
has appointed all our way, why should he still oppress 
us with this sense of condemnation? But this is, how- 
ever, the expression of none but such as have been 
quickened with spiritual life and are children of God. 
All others would use such arguments to prove that man 
is not worthless and unclean, and that God has not ab- 
solutely determined his days and appointed his bounds 
that he cannot pass ; and if such were the case, they 
will say, and yet God should hold man worthy of pun- 
ishment, they would have no love or reverence for him. 
But Job here truly represents the feeling of God's peo- 
ple under his chastising hand. They are not consider- 
ing whether they will love and fear and reverence him, 
for already he has put his love and fear and a reverence 
for him in their heart. They are not deciding whether 
they will be humble before him, for already they are 
" feeble and sore broken," and cannot choose but shrink 
appealingly while he looks upon them, till the Mediator 
and Shield is presented to their faith. It is under the 
oppression of that all-seeing Eye which searches the 
hearts that Job cries, Turn from him I And the same 



FOURTH ANSWER OF JOB. 95 

state of mind is expressed by the Psalmist when he 
says, " Oh spare me, that I may recover strength before 
I go hence and be no more. Remove thy stroke away 
from me ; I am consumed by the blow of thine hand." 
Ps. xxxix. 10, 13. j 

Again and again our minds turn to the mystery. 
When we go hence we shall be no more, as we have 
been. We are ever looking for some solution of the 
mystery to our natural minds, but it comes not. We 
look upon the sun and stars ; we look abroad upon the 
earth, beholding the forests, the mountains and streams 
and all familiar objects ; we turn to our friends and 
look upon the loved faces ; and shall it be that all these 
objects will for ever pass from our view ? that after the 
short period in which. we haVe known them we shall 
pass away from them and from our own present state 
of existence for ever ? So our questioning thoughts run 
on. 

For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that 
it will sprozit again, and that the tender branch 
thereof will not cease. Though the root thereof wax 
old in the earth, and the stock thereof die in the 
ground, yet through the scent of water it will bud 
and bring forth boughs like a plant. But man dieth 
and wasteth away; yea, man giveth up the ghost, 
and where is he? It is as the waters fail from the 
sea, and the flood decayeth and drieth up. The 
waters were there — they have failed and vanished, and 
no eye can follow them. So man lieth down and 
riseth not ; till the heavens be no more, they shall not 
awake, nor be raised out of their sleep. So by 
the urging of language and the forcing of visible 
things to a figurative use, Job strives to give some ex- 



96 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

pression to the greatness and depth of the mystery that 
everywhere surrounds this mortal existence of ours, and 
closes about the doors of the way in which we pass out 
from it to the unknown realms beyond. 

In "the words of the preacher, the son of David, 
king of Jerusalem," we find this same mystery much 
dwelt upon : u Who knoweth the spirit of man that 
goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth 
downward to the earth?" Eccles. iii. 21. 

But the faith of the saint is not disturbed by these 
questionings nor by the multitude of sorrows. While 
he longs for rest, and would be hidden in the grave till 
God's wrath be past ( for all our days are passed away 
in his wrath, Ps. xc. 9), yet he is confident that God 
sees all, and appoints his times and seasons in infinite 
wisdom. And here is presented that patience for which 
Job is celebrated, and which is common to all the 
saints — not a patience that belongs to their natural 
being, but that which tribulation worketh. Rom. v. 3. 
If a man die, shall he live again ? All the days of 
my appointed time will I wait till my change come. 
Job has asked that God would appoint him a set time, 
while he shall be hidden in the secret of the grave, and 
remember him ; and he will wait in the silence of death 
all that appointed time. No man can understand how 
a man can die and live again, and so the grave is a 
place of horror to him who contemplates it without 
the instruction of the Spirit, as a prison to close him 
in for ever. But the faith of the saint is not staggered 
by its darkness, nor by the apparent impossibility of 
the dead living again. He knows a change will come, 
and for that change he is prepared to wait, notwith- 
standing his natural haste and impatience. 



FOURTH ANSWER OF JOB. 97 

Thou shalt call, aitd I will answer thee. What 
sublime confidence in the Holy One ! This is reversing 
the doctrine of men. They say we must call and God 
will answer us. But, from the first, the child of God 
is taught to " stand still, and see the salvation of God." 
We wait for him. " It is good that a man should both 
hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord.'* 
Lam. iii. 26. When he called us from the darkness 
and ignorance of nature, we answered and came forth. 
" When thou saidst, Seek ye my face ; my heart said 
unto thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek." Ps. xxvii. 8. In 
all our pilgrimage it has been only at his call that we 
have come near to his throne of grace ; and we know 
that at his call we shall come forth from the deep slum- 
ber of death to eternal light and blessedness. Then 
shall we say, as we have always said when in the light 
of his presence, " Lo, this is our God ; we have waited 
for him : we will rejoice and be glad in his salvation." 
Isa. xxv. 9. The glorious resurrection, that change that 
faith looks for, shall surely come ; but how different 
will the sublime realization be from anything which 
our natural minds have been able to picture ! It will be, 
not as we have fancied that we understood it, but in a 
way becoming an infinite and unsearchable God, " whose 
ways are past finding out." Let darkness cover us and 
troubles compass us about, yet who shall make us cast 
off our confidence in God? He will "bring us forth 
to the light, and our eyes shall behold his righteous- 
ness." Micah vii. 9. Thou wilt have a desire to the 
work of thy hands. 

For no,w thou number est my steps ; dost thou not 
watch over my sin ? Thus David remembers how 
thoroughly God has searched and known him, behold- 
9 G 



9§ THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

ing his downsitting and his uprising, and understanding 
his thoughts afar off; compassing his path and his lying 
down ; knowing each word in his tongue ; besetting 
him behind and before ; being with and before him on 
the wings of the morning to the uttermost part of the 
sea ; discerning him in darkness as well as in light ; 
being present with him if he rise up in joy to heaven, 
or if, in deep affliction or in transgression, he make his 
bed in hell ; and in amazement he exclaims, u Such 
knowledge is too wonderful for me ; it is high, I cannot 
attain unto it." Ps. cxxxix. 6. So by intimating to us 
the greatness of his knowledge, visiting us every morn- 
ing with revelations of himself, and trying us every mo- 
ment with the fire of his anger against sin, he purifies 
us of that w T hich grows out of the dust of our earthly 
nature and destroys our own vain hopes : The waters 
wear the stones; thou washest away the things which 
grow out of the dust of the earth, and thou destroy est 
the hope of man. Thou prevailest for ever against 
him, a?id he passeth ; thou changest his counte?iance 
and sendest him away. The same truth so touchingly 
expressed here by him who is experiencing it is also 
presented by Moses in describing the condition of the 
people of God under the law : " Thou earnest them away 
as with a flood ; they are as a sleep ; in the morning 
they are like grass which groweth up. In the morning 
it flourisheth and groweth up ; in the evening it is cut 
down and withereth." Ps. xc. 5, 6. The prophet also 
testifies to the same. Isa. xl. 6, 7. 

Worldly affairs and affections lose their power to 
claim the interest and attention of one with whom God 
is thus dealing and separating from the world for him- 
self. His mind is engrossed in his trouble, or lost in 



FOURTH ANSWER OF JOB. 99 

contemplation of eternal things, where his desires are 
placed. His affections become loosed from earth. 
His sons come to honor, and he knoweih it not; and 
they are brought low, but he perceiveth it not of them. 
But, while he waits his appointed time, his Jlesh upon 
him shall have fain, and his soul within him shall 
mourn. 




M~£0ml&iM 



IX. 



SECOND ANSWER OF ELIPHAZ. 



CHAPTER XV. 

And must we submit again to listen to the vain speech 
of the self-appointed teacher? After having heard the 
words of Job, that have so powerfully appealed to our 
hearts with their thrilling pathos, and commended 
themselves to our understanding as manifesting the 
work of God in him and as embracing true doctrine, 
how void of interest and profit does the worldly reason- 
ing to which we must now give attention appear ! 

Eliphaz the Temanite now speaks again in his turn. 
He appears cooler and more calculating than the others, 
as becomes a leader. But he brings forward nothing 
new, except in varying somewhat and adding to his 
charges against Job : Should a wise ?nan utter vain 
knowledge and Jill his belly with the east wind ? 
Should he reason with unprojitable talk, or with 
speeches wherewith he can do no good? 

Here is one of the principal objections which worldly 
religionists bring against the doctrine of the Bible — that 
it is unprojitable and can do no good. They vainly 
suppose themselves able to quicken dead sinners 
(which they call converting them), and that this is 

100 



SECOND ANSWER OF ELIPHAZ. ioi 

their principal work ; and all preaching or conversa- 
tion upon religious subjects they regard as having this 
work for its main object, and what is not calculated to 
produce such effect is, in their estimation, ttnprojitable 
talk, and can do no good. In order to gather men 
into their organizations, which is their success in con- 
verting, they must speak what is consistent with the 
wisdom of man and what suits his carnal understand- 
ing. So the doctrine of God's sovereignty, as displayed 
in the election of his people, and in predestinating 
them unto good works and unto eternal glory, is re- 
garded by them as wzprojitable, even if they are forced 
to acknowledge it as in the Bible. Men do not like it, 
and will not receive it, even as the Saviour has told us ; 
therefore these teachers assure us that we can do no 
good by talking about it. And to complain under a 
sense of total depravity, as Job has been doing, only 
angers men, who, in their natural state do not believe 
themselves totally depraved, and will repel instead of 
attracting them, and therefore can do no good. 

In all this these false teachers manifest their real 
character, as ignorant of the way of salvation, opposers 
and haters of God's truth, and proudly exalting them- 
selves against him. He has left it with no man to 
quicken any : " It is the Spirit that quickeneth ; the flesh 
profiteth nothing." He has not left it with his people 
to choose out of their experience what the worldly mind 
may suppose will do good and leave the rest unex- 
pressed ; nor to decide what part of his truth, as re- 
corded in the Scriptures, is profitable and what un- 
profitable. The preachers preach what he bids them, 
and the object of their preaching is to instruct and com- 
fort his people, who are already quickened or brought 
9* 



102 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

to life. That which they are bidden to preach is not 
suited to the pride and vanity of man. It is very much 
what Job in the preceding chapter speaks of having 
experienced. " The voice said, Cry. And he said, 
What shall I cry ? All flesh is grass, and all the goodli- 
ness thereof is as the flower of the field. - The grass 
withereth, the flower fadeth, because the Spirit of the 
Lord bloweth upon it ; surely the people is grass. 
The grass withereth, the flower fadeth ; but the word 
of our God shall stand for ever." Isa. xl. 6-S. All 
conversation of the people of God upon religion is con- 
cerning what they truly feel and hope in — upon the 
power and goodness of God and the glory of his king- 
dom — and is for their mutual comfort and edification. 
They have no such vain ambition as the false teachers. 
It has been slain. If they can tell a little of their own 
poverty and vileness, and speak a little of the greatness 
and mercy of God, it is all they care to do. It is 
enough. The Psalmist declares, " They shall talk of 
the glory of thy kingdom, and speak of thy power." 
Ps. cxlv. ii. But while they do this, those who are 
" hypocritical mockers at feasts," as David denominates 
the teachers of Arminian doctrine, will chide and scorn 
them, as Eliphaz did Job, for reasoning with unprofit- 
able talk, and with speeches wherewith they can do 
no good. 

Tea, thou easiest off fear and restrainest prayer 
before God. This is a very common accusation against 
the people of God by those who know nothing of the 
nature of true prayer. Supposing it to be an audible 
speech, and its power to depend upon the posture or 
form of utterance, they charge those with restraining 
prayer who do not " pray to be seen of men, as the 



SECOND ANSWER OF ELIPHAZ. 1 03 

hypocrites do." Of that voiceless prayer which arises 
from the broken and contrite heart they know nothing ; 
nor do they seem to think that God can look into the 
heart and requires no form of words to convey to him 
a knowledge of our needs or our longing desires. The 
deep and fervent desire of the heart toward God is 
prayer ; and he hears it though it be not breathed forth 
in words, and though the poor sinner is even unconscious 
that he is praying. He hears the groaning of the pris- 
oner ( Ps. cii. 20), the sigh of the captive, the unspoken 
lamentation of the afflicted who sighs for help. He 
hears the poor and needy, whose tongue faileth for thirst 
so that he cannot speak. Isa. xli. 17. 

" Prayer is the burden of a sigh, 
The falling of a tear ;" 

and Job answers this charge of Eliphaz by saying, 
Mine eye foureth out tears unto God. 

For thy mouth tittereth thine iniquity, and thou 
choosest the tongue of the crafty. Thine own mouth 
conde?nneth thee, and not I; yea, thine own lips tes- 
tify against thee. This is probably in reference to 
Job's confession of his sinfulness before God, which 
Eliphaz construes into an acknowledgment of criminal 
acts committed, thus trampling these pearls of experi- 
ence under his feet, and turning again to rend him who 
has cast them before him. He also thus utters his con- 
demnation of the doctrine that proceeds out of Job's 
mouth. 

He now indignantly repels the confident assertion of 
Job that his doctrine is true and theirs false, by sarcas- 
tically asking, Art thou the first man that was born? 
or wast thou made before the hills? Hast thou heard 



104 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

the secret of God? and dost thou restrain wisdo??i to 
thyself? What knoivest thou that we know not? 
what understandest thou which is not with us? With 
us are both the gray-headed and very aged men, much 
older than thy father. Are the consolations of God 
small with thee? Is there any secret thing with 
thee? Thus they who suppose that men by wisdom 
do know God, and that knowledge of divine things is 
to be acquired by study, treat with contempt the revela- 
tions of God to his people. The doctrine his people 
speak is foolishness to the Greeks. If it was anything 
of importance, they have no doubt their wisdom would 
have searched it out. But this question, which was in- 
tended to express bitter contempt, could be answered 
in the affirmative. Job had heard the secret of God, 
as all true Christians have. " The secret of the Lord 
is with them that fear him" ( Ps. xxv. 14), and Job 
feared God. 

Understanding Job to be denying the justice of God's 
dealing with him, and asserting his own righteousness, 
Eliphaz says, What is man, that he should be clean ? and 
he which is bornof woman, that he should be righteous? 
We have before had occasion to notice this particular 
point of their ignorance concerning the way of salvation. 
They have no idea of a perfect purity and righteousness 
as necessary to prepare man for heaven. According to 
their view, a man who does what he can is rewarded 
for what he has done by a place in heaven, which 
will be higher or lower according to the amount and 
value of his works ; but still he is not, in their theory, 
made clean, as though he had never done wrong or 
sinned, but is rather like a criminal, who, having won 
the favor of his judge, is pardoned and sent out at lib- 



SECOND ANSWER OF ELIPHAZ. 105 

erty again, not pure and innocent, but freed from the 
punishment he deserves. If this were the principle 
upon which the saints are made meet for heaven, then 
most certainly the next declaration of Eliphaz would be 
true : Behold, he futteth no trust in his saints; yea, 
the heavens are not clean in his sight. If the saints 
were only pardoned criminals, truly they could not be 
trusted, and the heavens where they dwell would not 
be clean in the sight of Him who is infinitely holy. But 
the saints are perfectly pure and holy through Christ, 
and the heavens, whether the gospel Church or the 
heaven of eternal glory, are clean in his sight, without 
spot or blemish. Eph. v. 27. God and the Lamb are 
the light thereof. " Thus saith the Lord, The heaven 
is my throne." Isa. lxvi. 1. Is not his throne clean in 
his sight? 

But only those who are taught of God can know how 
he can be clean who is born of a woman. Eliphaz, 
like all his brethren in every age, is speaking what he 
has learned of human wisdom, which wise men have 
told from their fathers, and have not hid it; and he 
continues throughout this chapter to speak falsely con- 
cerning: the state of the wicked in this life. 




X. 

FIFTH ANSWER OF JOB. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

Then fob answered and said, I have heard many 
such things ; miserable comforters are ye all. Very 
miserable comfort indeed is the doctrine of the world 
to the poor sinner. We have seen how devoid of all 
consolation their vain words are. They have only 
heaped up words against him and shaken the head at 
him ; and he tells them that if their soul were in his 
soul's stead, he could talk as they do. But I would 
strengthen you with my mouth, and the moving of 
my lips should assuage your grief. When the saint 
speaks, even in telling his troubles, the soul of the 
quickened sinner is encouraged and comforted. There 
is mutual comfort in speaking together, for each tells 
what the other has experienced, and so love is brought 
into exercise and assurance of hope is gained. But 
one's complaints are no comfort to himself. Though 
I speak, my grief is not assuaged; arid though I for- 
bear, what am I eased? One cannot give himself ease 
and consolation. They must come to him. 

There is a striking similarity to this in the thirty-fifth 
Psalm, where David tells how differently he felt and 
acted toward his enemies in their trouble from what 
106 



FIFTH ANSWER OF JOB. 107 

they did toward him. When they were sick, he sor- 
rowed and fasted ; but when he was in adversity, they 
rejoiced. Ps. xxxv. 11-15. 

But now he hath made me weary; thou hast made 
desolate all my company. And thou hast filled me 
with wrinkles, which is a witness against me, and 
my leanness rising up in me beareth witness to my 
face. This is evidently spoken to the Lord, from 
whom this sorrowful and desolating experience of his 
corruptions comes. But in the next verse he alludes to 
the miserable comforters. 

He teareth me in his wrath who hateth me; he 
gnasheth upon me with his teeth; mine enemy sharp- 
eneth his eyes upon me. They have gaped upon me 
with their mouth; they have smitten me upon the 
cheek reproachfully ; they have gathered themselves 
together against me. Thus, in the greatness of his 
grief and weariness, his soul is made to speak in a par- 
able, to represent the hideous deformity of false doc- 
trine, and the terrors to which the soul of the righteous 
is subjected when the errors and delusions of Satan are 
allowed to be raised up against him. These pretended 
friends are only a great aggravation of his woe. In- 
deed, they are the sorest of Satan's temptations, the 
severest of his trials ; not only because of their false 
charges, but much more because of their false doctrine. 
His depravity is heavy upon him, but he has. a good 
hope of deliverance finally through his Redeemer. 
Their doctrine would take away that hope, and leave 
him to the refuge only of his own merits. Instead of 
speaking of the redeeming mercy of God and the glori- 
ous work of a Mediator, whereby the Lord's people are 
cleansed from their sins and sinfulness, they cast angry 



ioS THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

contempt upon him for declaring his vileness and yet 
trusting in God, and call upon him to make himself 
good if he would hope. They are miserable comfort- 
ers indeed. In them he recognizes the great enemy, 
"the prince of the power of the air," the spirit that now 
worketh in the children of disobedience, who speaks 
through all those that teach false doctrine, being the 
spirit that moves them, however good we may think 
them as men. He speaks of him in his friends : He 
teareth me in his wrath. So he represents the Church 
against whom Satan rages, when her fierce enemies 
are about her, marshaled by him. 

In many of the Psalms, as the twenty-second, the 
sixty-ninth and others, we find a striking similarity of 
language Here we know that David speaks by the 
Spirit as Christ. He speaks from the midst of strong 
and implacable enemies, and we hear his cries of grief 
and terror under all his dreadful suffering as "a man 
of sorrows," when the waves of trouble rolled in upon 
his soul ; when the terrors of death and the pains of hell 
gat hold upon him ; when floods of ungodly men com- 
passed him about, fearful in their rage and powerful to 
inspire terror, so that in the midst of them he is as a 
child compassed about with strong bulls of Bashan, 
that gape and stare upon him, beset with angry dogs, 
and roared against by the ravenous and terrible lion. 
In these expressions of Job, as well as in the Lamenta- 
tions of Jeremiah and other portions of the Scripture, 
we have the language of Christ's people under the "fel- 
lowship of his sufferings, " and hear their cries of an- 
guish and terror as they are passing through the valley 
of the shadow of death to the land of deliverance he 
has secured for them by his resurrection. 



FIFTH ANSWER OF JOB. 109 

It is of these same enemies of Job that the Psalmist 
speaks when he says in similar language, " They shoot 
out the lip, they shake the head." Ps. xxii. 13. " In 
mine adversity they rejoiced, and gathered themselves 
together." " With hypocritical mockers in feasts they 
gnashed upon me with their teeth." Ps. xxxv. 15, 16. 

But Job recognizes in all this the overruling hand of 
God, by whose permission alone Satan is allowed to do 
anything : God hath delivered me to the ungodly and 
turned me over into the hands of the wicked, whom 
he speaks of as God's archers that compass him about. 
So David recognizes the wicked and men of the world, 
from whom he prays to be delivered, as God's hand and 
sword. It is necessary that the enemies should be about 
God's children while here and persecute their souls. 
Ps. cxliii. 3. " The Lord hath commanded concerning 
Jacob that his adversaries shall be round about him." 
Lam. i. 17. "He turned their hearts to hate his people, 
to deal subtilly with his servants." Ps. cv. 25. 

Job therefore looks beyond these enemies and sees 
God's power directing in all that he suffers. What he 
speaks is all true, but he does not seem to speak of it with 
that resignation that God will finally bring him and all 
his people to feel, and for this we shall hereafter hear 
him reproved. But he speaks what the Christian will 
understand by his own experience. 

I was at ease, but he hath broken me asunder ; he 
hath also taken me by the neck, and shaken me to 
pieces, and set me up for his mark. And he contin- 
ues to describe thus figuratively his present distress into 
which God has brought him : Not for any injustice in 
my hands; also my prayer is pure. Not because his 
hands have been turned to wickedness, nor because he 
10 



HO THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

has been speaking hypocritically with his lips. His 
prayer is pure, as was that of the Publican : u God be 
merciful to me, a sinner." It is pure because not of- 
fered in his own name, but is a prayer to a merciful 
God by faith in a Redeemer. 

I was at ease, but he hath broken me asunder. 
Could we rest always in the sweet enjoyment of the 
privileges of the Church, and in a complacent feeling 
that we were walking worthy of them, and feel every 
day and all the time that Christ's love was ours, and 
that since we hoped we had not proved unworthy of it, 
how pleasant it would be ! But how full of vanity we 
should soon become. How can we know the heart, 
which is deceitful above all things? We are broken 
asunder, shaken to pieces and filled with arrows from 
God's archers. We find ourselves doing, to our sur- 
prise, what is very sinful, and all at once our whole 
being appears to us nothing but vileness. We are 
pierced through with many sorrows. What now ? Are 
we any worse than we were before ? Are we any. less 
worthy of God's love? If he had loved us for our own 
merits, we would be ; but the love of God for any of 
the sons of man is only through Christ. T!his we were 
beginning to forget when we were so full of comfort, 
and so God has left us to know what manner of crea- 
tures we are, that we may be kept in humility and may 
remember that in the Lord only have we righteousness 
and strength. 

We think ourselves more worthy of his love when 
we regard ourselves as faithful than when we are cring- 
ing under a sense of our corruptions. But he will 
teach us that this is not so — that his love is everlasting ; 
and because of that love we shall "be holy and without 



FIFTH ANS WER OF JOB. I 1 1 

blame before him in love." These words of Job show 
him as a type, and he speaks for those who have trans- 
gressed, although he as a man had not transgressed. 

We are to remember continually, however, that these 
afflictions of the saints are not for any injustice in their 
hands, but for the trial of their faith, and for their in- 
struction in regard to God's way of salvation. They 
are brought to know the full weight of their corruptions 
in this life and to be afflicted under it, while the wicked 
go on in their wickedness undisturbed by a sense of 
God's indignation, and do not travail with pain all their 
days, as Eliphaz declares in the preceding chapter, but 
take their ease. The transgression of the saint does 
not itself, abstractly considered, cause him so much 
pain as the manifestation it makes to him of his corrup- 
tion and vileness in the sight of God. So David says 
to the Lord, "Against thee and thee only have I sinned 
and done this evil in thy sight." Ps. li. 

O earth, cover not thou my blood, and let my cry 
have no placet This must evidently be understood as 
a highly figurative expression, and may have reference 
to the same truth declared in Isaiah xxvi. 21 : " The 
earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more 
cover her slain." Whatever is declared concerning the 
Lord's work for Zion, her children are made to desire 
and ask for. The earth represents all earthly religion, 
all earthly wisdom and understanding. Blood is fre- 
quently used in the Scriptures to represent life, and the 
shedding of it death. Job is experiencing the pains of 
that death which comes upon all the saints in this mor- 
tal state — a death to the world, to all worldly hopes and 
to all comfort or confidence in himself. He is experi- 
encing the conformity to our Saviour's death. Phil. iii. 



112 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

10. All this bitter experience, and the doctrine that 
explains it, the wisdom of the world denies, and heaps 
ridicule upon the sufferer. Their earthly religion would 
cover up any such death, denying that through death 
we must come to spiritual life and enjoyment ; denying 
essentially all the doctrine that shows how we must first 
be dead with Christ before we can live with him. 2 
Cor. iv. 11 ; 2 Tim. ii. 11. These earthly teachers also 
profess to understand the cry of the righteous, or of 
God's people, when thus afflicted — profess that it finds 
■place among them, and that there is nothing in it but 
what their wisdom can easily understand. But they 
answer it, or profess to do so, by denying their experi- 
ence as being the experience of the saints, and by teach- 
ing such false doctrine as Job's friends have spoken to 
him. The effect of all such worldly doctrine, which 
declares that man can do anything to win God's favor, 
is thus to cover the blood, or death, or suffering of the 
righteous, and therefore Job speaks thus, if I have 
rightly understood this expression, to show his desire to 
be separated entirely from them, and not be endangered 
or shackled by their false doctrine. And it is declared 
that the earth shall not hide or cover from the sight of 
God the experience of his people, nor cover her slain. 

Also now, behold, my witness is in heaven, and my 
record is on high. He does not look to men for testi- 
mony in his favor, nor for the comfortable evidences 
that he shall be eternally blessed. But his faith looks 
to the " faithful and true Witness" ( Rev. i. 5 ; iii. 14), 
who is his Redeemer. That Witness is in heaven, at 
the right hand of the Father; and his Spirit witnesses 
with our spirits that we are born of God. There, also, 
the record is upon which Job, by faith, relies for justi- 



FIFTH ANSWER OF JOB. 113 

fication ; not a record of good deeds performed by him, 
but of a glorious Lamb slain, in whose book of life the 
names of all his chosen ones are written. There is no 
fear that this record of God's eternal purpose shall be 
changed. u For ever, O Lord, thy word is settled in 
heaven." Ps. cxix. 89. 

My friends scorn me; but mine eye poureth out 
tears unto God. This seems to be in direct reply to 
the charge of Eliphaz that he restrains prayer before 
God. They that are at ease, feeling very comfortable 
in the contemplation of their own fancied goodness, 
look with contempt upon him who is really poor in 
spirit, who honestly tells his complaints and acknow- 
ledges his vileness. They scorn him because of his af- 
flictions on account of his corrupt nature, regarding 
themselves as very much better than he ; and they 
haughtily advise him to go about the work of making 
himself acceptable, and to pray and supplicate forgive- 
ness at the hands of God. And because he does not 
look for acceptance before God through any such means, 
nor regard the formality of prayer as that which is to 
make him any more meritorious, they scorn him the 
more ; for they suppose their prayers affect the mind of 
God. But the saint prays and supplicates in secret. 
His soul is bowed before God. How forcible is this 
expression to reveal the secret feeling of that renewed 
soul ! — Mine eye poureth out tears unto God. He is 
in the closet, in the secret place of the Most High, 
where only true prayer is ever made. The door is 
closed, so that, although in the midst of thousands, he 
is alone spiritually, and prays to God who is in secret 
from the view of the world, pouring out tears in the 
secret of his soul. What if his friends do not see his 
10* H 



I H THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

tears or hear his prayer ! They are not his judges, nor 
is his commendation to come from them. He does not 
seem to address this remark to his friends, as though he 
desired even to let them know that his eye poured out 
tears* The Pharisee would seem to regard that prayer 
or service vain which he could not let men know of. 
But only the quickened soul can hear the true prayer 
or judge of the saint's real desires ; and to such these 
words of Job are directed for their comfort. 

Oh that one 7night plead for a man with God, as 
a man pleadeth for his neighbor I Here he seems to 
see the necessity of the glorious office of Advocate 
which our Saviour fills ; but with a lively sense of his 
own inability to fill it, for he is but for a short time to 
remain : When a few years are come, then I shall 
go the way whence I shall not return. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

My breath is corrupt, my days are extinct, the 
graves are ready for me. They are undoubtedly 
wearied with this continual complaint of corruption on 
the part of Job. And so some theological student who 
should chance to look at this book would undoubtedly 
find his nice taste disturbed by the frequent recurrence 
to this subject of depravity. Should he be one who 
holds the doctrine of total depravity as a part of his 
system, yet he would think once stating that doctrine 
enough for one book. But he who is not merely study- 
ing or expounding doctrine, but experiencing it, as Job 
was, and as all God's people are, will not be apt to talk 



FIFTH ANSWER OF JOB. 115 

or write in strict accordance with the fastidious taste 
of the polite theologian. Merely to state once that he 
regards himself as a sinner, and as corrupt with all of 
Adam's race, will not satisfy him. One who is hurt 
does not merely utter one cry and let that suffice, but 
will very likely repeat the cry as the pain returns again 
and again. So those who truly feel the burden of 
their corruption will speak from that feeling quite 
differently from those who only accept it as a theory. 

My breath is corrupt. Job has said his prayer is 
pure, but what would it be if the virtues of prayer 
consisted in the form or words? The voice, the breath, 
literally, has no part to do in the essential prayer, else 
it would be corrupt. The nearer we try to come to 
God the more clearly is our deep depravity felt and 
seen by us. Even that which we looked upon as ser- 
vice to God, even what we thought was prayer, we find 
to be based in the vanity and corruption of our nature ; 
and we are left silent and destitute, hardly daring to 
raise a breath or even a thought toward God's holy 
throne, so polluted do we find every motion of our 
minds. But there is left the pure prayer, the cry for 
mercy, that manifests us as finally brought to lean alone 
upon Christ. That prayer that truly ascends through 
him, the prayer for mercy, is pure. 

My days are extinct. When the light is all gone 
the day is gone. So when the light of natural reason, 
or of worldly wisdom, fails us, and we can see no good- 
ness or strength in our natural life, nor any hope of get- 
ting better in ourselves, then our days are extinct, gone 
out in darkness, and we only wait for release. " The 
writing of Hezekiah when he had been sick, and was 
recovered of his sickness," telling how he felt and what 



Il6 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

he said during his sickness, is very similar to this : "I 
said, in the cutting off of my days, I shall go to the 
gates of the grave." " Mine age is departed." Isa. 
xxxviii. 9-22. It was not merely the expression of suf- 
fering from natural sickness ; as the speech of Jonah 
while in the whale's belly was more than the mere ex- 
pression of temporal trouble. Hezekiah spoke from 
the same " pit of corruption" from which Job is now 
speaking and where Jonah was. Jon. ii. 6. David 
and Hezekiah and Jonah speak of deliverance from 
that pit, while they relate their feelings before their re- 
lease ; and so shall the deliverance of Job be hereafter 
presented. Ps. xl. 2. 

He now speaks again of his friends as mockers — 
mocking his sorrow and necessity with their vain, false 
doctrine and scorn. He knows the Lord has hid their 
heart from understanding, and he will not flatter them 
with any approval or commendation of their words. 
Thou hast hid their heart froiii understanding. 
While the saint must still contend against the errors of 
false teachers, it is not for the purpose of changing their 
hearts, for this he knows he has no power to do, nor 
can he cause them to understand the truth. He knows 
that God has hid their hearts from understanding. He 
refers to his suffering condition, aggravated by their 
mockery, and says, Upright men shall be astonished 
at this, and the innocent shall stir himself up against 
the hypocrite. 

The real hypocrite before God is one who is confid- 
ing in his own merits, who pretends to a holiness which 
man cannot possess in himself nor attain to by his own 
works, who professes to have the Spirit of God and to 
be approved in his sight, while he speaks false doc- 



FIFTH ANSWER OF JOB. 117 

trine. He may be sincere in his belief, but it is a vain 
and ignorant sincerity, and he is deceived as well as 
deceiving. 2 Tim. iii. 13. He may be clear from evil 
deeds in the sight of men, may be as zealous, abstemi- 
ous and outwardly pure as were the Pharisees, but he 
is a hypocrite in heart as they were, and in the sight of 
God is like a whited sepulchre, full of corruption. 
This is the hypocrite of whom Job speaks. He whom 
his friends call a hypocrite is the one who acknow- 
ledges himself a sinner while yet looking for salvation 
and professing to love God. His mourning on account 
of a sinful nature they regard as the stings of conscience 
for evil deeds, which he strives to keep concealed from 
men and from God, lest the falsity of his profession 
should be discovered. And so they tell him — falsely — 
that the wicked is in pain and fear all his days, and 
warn him that God can see his heart. Not being able 
to understand the doctrine of God, that shows a hope 
for a poor sinner through a Mediator, nor able to con- 
ceive how one can get to heaven on any other ground 
than as a reward for goodness, they suppose every one's 
professed hope must rest upon that ground. So when 
they read of the fall of Peter and David, they declare 
that had those saints died then they would have been 
lost, but that they lived long enough to repent and do 
good, and so probably were saved. 

He whom the world thus regards as a hypocrite, so 
far as it can know his complaints and his doctrine, is 
the one whom Job terms the innocent. He is inno- 
cent because washed from sin in the precious blood of 
a Redeemer, and preserved in him " holy and without 
blame before God in love." He is upright, because he 
holds the head, from whom all the body is nourished 



1 18 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

and built up, walking in the truth. Col. ii. 19. He 
keeps the faith and does not depart from the law of the 
Lord, for that law is written in his heart. These are 
the " pure in heart," speaking the truth in their heart. 
Ps. xv. 2. Job seemed to know that he represented the 
Church, and that in this interview and in his disconso- 
late condition is an example for all time of how the 
poor in spirit are afflicted by the false speech of worldly 
teachers, and that the people of God shall see with as- 
tonishment how this false doctrine is brought forward 
to trouble him who must depend alone upon the mercy 
of God, and shall stir themselves up against the hypo- 
critical teacher, and boldly fight against him with " the 
sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God." 

The righteous also shall hold on his way, and he 
that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger. 
The people of God are righteous and have clean hands, 
even according to a worldly test, above their opposers. 
It is from a deep desire to be free from committing sin 
in thought or word or deed in the sight of a heart- 
searching God, and not from a fear of the judgment of 
men, that they refrain from evil. Job was upright in 
this outward or worldly sense, and free from the sins 
they charged upon him. Nevertheless, it is not in this 
sense that they are called righteous and have clean 
hands. In themselves — that is, in their flesh — they are 
taught by a painful experience that there dwells no good 
thing. Rom. vii. 18. The Scriptures also declare this 
to be so, and that gives them comfort ; for when our 
own experience agrees with the written Word it is an 
evidence that we have been taught of the Spirit. They 
have to confess themselves as vile and unworthy, and 
are often led into captivity by the law of sin which is in 



FIFTH ANSWER OF JOB. 1 19 

their members. Rom.vii. 23. But all for whom Christ 
died are freed from condemnation. His name is, to them, 
" The Lord our Righteousness." He brings them into 
his house, into his glorious truth, into the beauty of his 
works. They stretch forth their hands toward him 
(Ps. cxliii. 6), and turn with abhorrence from the vani- 
ties of the world and from the false doctrines of men, 
which are based in bribes and vanity and deceit, teach- 
ing according " to the rudiments of the world," calling 
for a ''voluntary humility," and subjecting to ordinances 
which are all to perish with the using ; " which. things" — 
that is, the ordinances and forms and sacrifices by which 
these worldly doctrines say that salvation is to be ob- 
tained — " have indeed a show of wisdom in will-wor- 
ship and humility and neglecting of the body ; not in 
any honor to the satisfying of the flesh." Col. ii. 1S-23. 
Those who have clean hands in the meaning of the 
text are such as " touch not, taste not, handle not" any 
of these things as means of salvation — who lift not up 
their soul unto vanity nor swear deceitfully. These 
ascend into the hill of the Lord and stand in his holy 
place. Ps. xxiv. 3, 4. They stand fast in his holy doc- 
trine, rely only upon him for salvation, and rejoice in 
the honor and glory of his name. These shall hold on 
their way. They are members of one body, of which 
Christ is the Head. Satan cannot prevail against them, 
as this trial of Job is to prove abundantly. Though he 
cause them to fall by his temptations, yet they shall rise 
again, and show that in all these things they are more 
than conquerors through Him that hath loved them. 
Rom. viii. 37. Their faith shouts, " Rejoice not against 
me, O mine enemy ; when I fall, I shall arise." Micah 
vii. 8. These shall be stronger and stronger \ not 



120 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

in themselves, but in the Lord, who is their strength. 
As their own ' strength fails from day to day, they see 
more clearly their need of him, and more understand- 
ingly " rejoice in the Lord and in the power of his 
might." It is through such experiences as are pre- 
sented in Job's- case that they truly become stronger and 
stronger — the vain strength consumed away that the 
true strength may appear, and that they may say, " My 
flesh and my heart fails, but God is the strength of my 
heart and my portion for ever." Thus, ''they go from 
strength to strength ; every one of them in Zion ap- 
peareth before God." Ps. lxxxiv. 7. " He giveth power 
to the faint, and to them that have no ?night he in- 
creaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be 
weary, and the young men shall utterly fall ; but they 
that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength ; 
they shall mount up with wings as eagles ; they shall 
run and not be weary ; and they shall walk and not 
faint." Isa. xl. 29-31. 

So does the faith of Job lay hold upon the glorious 
doctrine of sovereign and triumphant grace, and he 
confidently asserts it while yet his grief is upon him. 
But as for you all, do ye return and co?ne now ; 
or look over your arguments and conclusions again, 
and try my position with more carefulness, and see if 
you cannot know the error of your doctrine ; for your 
words heretofore have been entirely destitute of true 
w r isdom, and I cannot fnd one wise man among you. 

He is now experiencing that very weakness in him- 
self which his doctrine tells us is necessary in order 
that the true strength shall be manifested. My days 
are fast, 7ny purposes are broken off, even the thoughts 
of my heart. They change the night into day ; the 



FIFTH ANSWER OF JOB. 



121 



light is short because of darkness. All this, as Elihu 
afterward tells him, is but the effect of God's work in 
his heart, xxxiii. 17. But how desolate the feeling 
when our purposes in this world are all destroyed, until 
the light of God's purpose fully shines upon us ! Our 
own thoughts are so broken and confused that they can 
see only darkness and the grave. God makes the day 
dark with night. Amos v. 8. 

I have said to corruption, Thou art my father ; to 
the worm, Thou art my mother and my sister. Let 
us remember for our comfort, who have so deeply felt 
the same that our hope seemed ready to forsake us, 
that a saint of God says this while still contending for 
the doctrine that we love. 

And where is now my hope? As for my hope, who 
shall see it? It cannot be seen by mortal sight nor 
understood by even our own natural minds ; but it is 
" a good hope through grace," and they who oppose 
the doctrine which presents and sustains that hope, and 
who continue in their opposition to it, shall go down to 
the bars of the pit, when our rest together is in the 
grave. 
11 




mmm*m 



XI. 

SIXTH ANSWER OF JOB. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

As the second answer of Bildad contained in the 
eighteenth chapter is but a repetition of what he and 
his friends have before continually made the burden of 
their speech against Job, I pass it over, and come 
again to the words of the saint who is being tried : 
How long iv ill ye vex ?ny soul and break t?ie in pieces 
with words? It is a peculiarly bitter vexation which 
is caused by these unjust accusations and insinuations, 
made more bitter by the false doctrine in which they 
are based, and which is continually presented with 
them, as well as by the fact that these accusers are pro- 
fessed brethren. These ten times have ye reproached 
vie; ye are ?iot asha?ned that ye jnake yourselves 
strange unto vie. To the soul of the tried saint these 
things come like a heavy blow upon a painful sore. 
Though only words that they utter, yet they would 
break him in pieces, for words are fearfully and crush- 
ingly heavy sometimes. 

Job cannot aver that he has not erred, for he is keenly 
sensible of his miserable weakness ; and he has before 
compared the words of complaint, which he utters in 
the bitterness of his soul, to the wind. But his error 

122 



SIXTH ANSWER OF JOB. 1 23 

is not such as they charge upon him. He has caused no 
injury to any other, either by doing personal violence, 
withholding what justice or mercy demanded, or speak- 
ing false doctrine to lead astray. And be it indeed 
that I have erred, 7nine error remaineth with myself. 
The error which lies in his cries and complaints has 
heretofore been spoken of, and will be more particularly 
noticed hereafter ; but it is to be suffered for by him 
alone ; it harms only himself. 

If indeed ye will magnify yourselves against me, 
and plead against me my reproach, know now that 
God hath overthrown me, and hath compassed me 
with his net. The burden of their arguments against 
him has been his calamities that have happened to him, 
and his present loathsome condition, which, they have 
contended, are proof that he is wicked. Job now 
boldly declares to their face his assurance that all this 
is the work of God, while he yet is not afraid of their 
conclusion, knowing it to be false. Though Satan has 
bereaved and sorely afflicted him, yet he sees only the 
sovereign counsel of God in it all. He knows well 
that God controls and directs all things, and that noth- 
ing can possibly transpire but in accordance with his 
sovereign will ; neither does he try to hide or avoid the 
mention of this on account of their falsely and igno- 
rantly asserting that these evils are judgments sent upon 
him for his wicked actions, but the more positively de- 
clares his assurance that God has sent this evil upon 
him, though he cannot yet see the purpose of God in it. 
So it is the privilege of the saints in all ages to know 
that all which happens to them is in accordance with 
the wise decree of a most merciful God, though they 



124 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

cannot yet see the everlasting purpose of love and mercy 
in their troubles. 

From the seventh to the twenty-first verses he de- 
scribes the miserable and lonely condition into which 
God has brought him ; and as he mentions the particu- 
lars of his sorrowful state we are reminded of like ex- 
pressions made by others of the saints, who were in- 
spired to give the true experience of the people of Zion 
as they pass through the furnace of affliction. He cries 
out of wrong, out of the violence of his suffering, but 
God does not seem to hear ; his way is fenced up, and 
darkness is set in his paths ; his glory is stripped off, 
and the crown taken from his head ; he is destroyed on 
every side, and his hope is removed like a tree. Thus 
are we cut off from all confidence and enjoyment in the 
flesh. Then is pathetically described that experience 
through which one becomes a " stranger on the earth," 
surrounded by the enemies of God and truth, who are 
recognized as God's troops, and who seem to him as an 
evidence of God's wrath against him, as they are per- 
mitted to raise up their way against him. He hath 
put my brethren far fro?n me, a?id mi?ie acquaintance 
are verily estra?iged from ??ie. His kinsfolk and 
fa?niliar friends, his maids and the servants of his 
house, and even his wife and young children, are 
turned from him and hold him in contempt. All my 
inward friends abhorred ??ie, and they whom I loved 
are turned against me. What a mournful picture of 
desolation is here ! The saints are called out from the 
world and are said to be strangers in it. In this place 
we see an expression that figuratively represents the 
sorrowful experience of soul while we are being sepa- 



SIXTH ANSWER OF JOB. 125 

rated from the world, and are taught to hate our own 
lives for our corruption. 

Here is a clear representation of the desolation of 
Zion under the law : " How doth the city sit solitary 
that was full of people !" " Among all her lovers she 
hath none to comfort her ; all her friends have dealt 
treacherously with her, they are become her enemies." 
" The ways of Zion do mourn, because none come to 
her solemn feasts." Lam. i. 1,2, 4. Our Saviour says 
by the Psalmist, " I am become a stranger unto my 
brethren, and am alien unto my mother's children." Ps. 
lxix. 8. 

Job turns to his friends, who have not been able to 
understand or sympathize with him in his sore troubles, 
and says, Have -pity upon me, have pity upon me, O 
ye my friends, for the hand of God hath touched me. 
Why do ye persecute me as God, and are not satisfied 
with my jlesh ? This passage not only clearly connects 
Job with the Psalmist as one of like character and con- 
dition, but also connects his friends with those enemies 
spoken of in the sixty-ninth Psalm : " Thou hast known 
my reproach, and my shame, and my dishonor ; mine 
adversaries are all before thee. Reproach hath broken 
my heart, and I am full of heaviness, and I looked for 
some to take pity, but there was none, and for comforters, 
but I found none. They gave me also gall for my meat, 
and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink. Let their 
table become a snare unto them, for they persecute him 
whom thou hast smitten ; they speak to the grief of 
those whom thou hast wounded." Ps. lxix. 19-26. In 
this passage Christ speaks of his sufferings and of his 
enemies. It is clear that Job speaks for those who fol- 
low him in his sufferings, finding the same lack of any 
11* 



126 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

to take pity, and failure of comforters. These who pro- 
fess to be comforters are "hypocritical mockers" (Ps. 
xxxv. 1 6), and in both cases they are charged with per- 
secuting as God, or those smitten of God. Job may 
call in vain for pity from them ; for Satan is their 
mover, and the heart of the enemy is fci hard as the 
nether millstone." 

How is it that any can regard Job's friends as good 
men or children of God ? Is it not clear that their doc- 
trine is false? Was Job ever reproved for his strong 
language against them ? Those who would apologize 
for their little errors, and who say that in the main they 
were right, as many writers do, have to be almost as 
severe against Job as they were, and pay more respect 
to them than to what the Lord has said of both them 
and Job. But as they are among the earliest human 
teachers of that doctrine now known as Arminian whose 
teachings are recorded, Arminians find it necessary to 
sustain them. 

Oh that my words were now written ! Oh that they 
were printed i?i a book ! that they were graven with 
an iro?i pen and lead in the rock for evert This 
seems to be a strong expression of confidence in the 
truth he is about to utter, and of its transcendent great- 
ness and importance. 

For I know that my Redeemer liveth. Here is that 
faith which distinguishes the saints from the world and 
sustains them through every possible trial and tempta- 
tion, and by which they live the life that they now live 
in the flesh. Gal. ii. 20. Job has described his suffer- 
ing condition as the most pitiable that we can imagine 
a poor soul to be in : not only forsaken of all earthly 
friends, deprived of all earthly comfort, suffering the 



SIXTH ANSWER OF JOB. 127 

most excruciating anguish of body and mind, and full 
of corruption, but with the great and holy God, whom 
he feared and delighted to serve, apparently turned to 
be his enemy, and justly bearing him down with his 
great anger into the awful chasm of nothingness. Yet, 
in the midst of all this accumulation of horrors, in the 
midst of this great darkness and desolation of soul, he 
gives utterance to these words of strong confidence, that 
rise from the darkness like a great gleam of unfading 
light — words that can spring only from " the faith of 
the Son of God," of Him who went without fear into 
the awful darkness and great deeps of death, knowing 
that he should be brought up again by the glory of the 
Father and be raised up on high. That faith is in all 
the saints, but is not known by the natural mind. It 
looks to things far beyond the reach of mortal sight, 
enters into that within the veil, lays hold upon the un- 
fading inheritance, and dwells in the glorious light that 
falls from the throne of God. By that faith Abel saw 
the glorious work of redemption all complete, saw the 
word of God for ever settled in heaven, and received 
the joys of salvation, as all this shall be presented to the 
faith of the last saint that shall be gathered in. 

Job in this place speaks for every child of God in all 
ages, for it is the same faith that is in them all. He 
may be regarded as representing in an especial manner 
the Church under the legal dispensation — not the Jew- 
ish Church or nation of Israel, but the true Israelites 
among that people who stood by faith. This faith is 
the same, and grasps the same perfection in Christ, 
whether in those who lived before he came in the flesh 
or in those who are on the earth now ; and so, while 
we regard Job as especially representing those under 



128 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

the legal dispensation who truly hoped in the Redeemer, 
and who looked forward to the time when, according 
to promise, he should stand in the latter day upon the 
earth, yet we who live in the latter day can answer to 
all his struggles and to the triumphs of his faith. 

How well his condition represents that of those who 
have been thoroughly measured by the law and found 
wanting, which is the case with all the people of God 
experimentally ! No righteousness that can answer its 
just demands ; no strength to work its holy require- 
ments ; no wisdom to direct according to its perfect 
rule ; no offering to make as an atonement for the vio- 
lence we have done its infinitely holy and just and good 
provisions ; but feeble, helpless, foolish, vile, and full 
of corruption, we lie under its curse, with all earthly 
comfort and satisfaction taken from us, all the sweet- 
ness even of earth's pleasures turned to bitterness in our 
taste — our glory gone like a dream, our hope removed 
like a tree. Yet from this lowest place of darkness, 
when all earthly confidence has failed, and when all 
human wisdom would fail to see any possible ground 
for hope in that desperate condition, faith rises in sub- 
lime confidence and strength and lifts up her glorious 
words on high — I know that my Redeemer liveth. 

From whom was this glorious knowledge received ? 
for it is not within the grasp of mortal powers, and 
therefore could not be taught by man. Flesh and blood 
hath not revealed this, but the Father of our Lord Jesus 
Christ which is in heaven. Matt. xvi. 17. Now, as 
fully as before our Redeemer came in the flesh, is this 
heavenly knowledge hidden from the natural mind, but 
God hath revealed it unto us by his Spirit. 1 Cor. ii. 10. 
That faith which is the gift of God beheld the Redeemer 



SIXTH ANS WER OF JOB. 1 29 

of his people before he came in the flesh. How that 
redemption should be effected, and what the great joys 
were it should bring, were not for the saints yet to know. 
Should the full joys of salvation be now bestowed upon 
us in this mortal state, what should we have to look 
forward to? u What a man seeth, why doth he yet 
hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do 
we with patience wait for it." Rom. viii. 25. Here is 
the patience of Job. " Here is the patience and the 
faith of the saints," that in the midst of all their sorrows, 
notwithstanding all their vileness, with all appearances 
against them, they will still hope ; they must still hope ; 
earth and hell cannot prevent their hopefully looking 
up and saying by faith, even in the midst of most pain- 
ful doubts and fears with which the world, the flesh 
and the devil harass them, I know that my Re- 
deemer liveth. They must mourn yet, and suffer 
and complain under a sense of sins and errors, and have 
their frequent wanderings opposed by Satan to their 
hope ; but they shall be preserved through all, and 
in their patience shall possess their souls, and finally 
rise triumphant over all, to the shame and everlasting 
contempt of their enemy, and to the glory of Him 
"who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus 
Christ." 

It was not the works of the law to which the spirit- 
ual people of God among the Israelites looked for sal- 
vation, as the fleshly people did and yet do, but to a 
Mediator, to the Lord their Redeemer, the Hoi}' One 
of Israel, their Saviour, who was to appear upon the 
earth. To this coming of our Saviour into the world 
in human form I understand Job to have alluded by the 
inspiration of the Spirit when he so confidently says. 

I 



130 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

and that he shall stand in the latter day upon the 
earth. 

• This is sometimes understood to refer especially to 
the final termination of all things. But I cannot under- 
stand from the Scriptures that our Saviour is to come 
again to stand in a bodily or fleshly form upon the earth. 
Paul declares that we are to know him no more after 
the flesh (2 Cor. v. 16), neither is any man to be known 
after the flesh in the kingdom of God. Flesh and blood 
cannot inherit that kingdom. In the resurrection the 
body is not raised a natural, but a spiritual body. 1 Cor. 
xv. 44, 50. This question, however, it will not be ne- 
cessary to argue particularly here, for I think it will ap- 
pear that this passage refers to the coming of our Sa- 
viour in the flesh " in the end of the world," or worldly, 
Jewish dispensation, as was promised, to redeem his 
people. To this coming the saints under the legal dis- 
pensation looked forward as their hope. The latter 
day is the gospel dispensation, which is frequently 
called the " last day," u the last time," " the end of the 
world." Isa. ii. 2 ; Micah iv. 1 ; Acts ii. 17 ; Heb. i. 2 ; 
1 Pet. i. 20; 1 John ii. 18; Jude 18. In the dawning 
of this last day, whose light is the Sun of Righteous- 
ness arising with healing in his wings, the Redeemer, 
" whose goings forth have been from of old, from ever- 
lasting," stood upon the earth. 

And though after my skin worms destroy this 6ody, 
yet in my Jlesh shall I see God. 

The skin, representing the beauty and comeliness, is 
first destroyed by the loathsome disease of sin. "When 
thou with rebukes dost chasten man for iniquity, thou 
makest his beauty to consume away like a moth." Ps. 
xxxix. 11. We see how the glory and beauty ^of Israel 



SIXTH ANSWER OF JOB. 13 J 

faded away under the just rebukes of God. In the de- 
scriptions of this that are given in the prophets we see 
the state of the sinner, when the holiness of the law 
finds him out, fully set forth. But though this is Job's 
present miserable condition, and though he knows that 
after the beauty has gone the body must also be de- 
stroyed in the grave, which is ready for him, yet faith, 
ever bold and triumphant in its assertions, declares, to 
the astonishment of his worldly friends at his wonderful 
presumption, that yet in his flesh he shall see God. 
This is far beyond human reason, and appears so clearly 
to contradict it that his friends scorn him. But the 
faith of the Church, the seed of Abraham, beholds 
Christ taking upon him the seed of Abraham (Heb. ii. 
16), and clothed in the same flesh of which his people 
were partakers, that in that fleshly body prepared for 
him he might redeem them. " Inasmuch as the chil- 
dren are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself 
likewise took part of the same.'" Heb. ii. 14. Job, as a 
type of the Church, could then say, In my flesh shall I 
see God; for so the Church saw him — God manifest in 
the flesh — in the dawning of her gospel state, which 
the latter end of Job so beautifully and clearly repre- 
sents ; and could declare, as Job for her did declare, 
Now mine eye seeth thee; or as Simeon declared when 
he, as a type of the Church ready to depart in the legal 
or fleshly form, ready to rise and shine in her gospel 
organization, held the infant Saviour in his arms — 
" Mine eyes have seen thy salvation." 

But as the end and object of all types and illustra- 
tions are the instruction and comfort of the members 
of the Church, we shall find individual experience in 
them all. We may understand Job as saying for him- 



132 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

self as a saint, In my Jiesh shall I see God. Though 
my skin is already consumed, my comeliness gone, and 
though this body shall also be destroyed, yet I am as- 
sured that before this destruction comes I shall have a 
view of God, " whom no man can approach unto," 
while I am yet in the flesh — whom I shall see for my- 
self and mine eyes shall behold, and not another. And 
this he did, saying, Now mine eye seeth thee. So with 
every saint. Though he has no merits, and his body 
cannot endure the presence of that God who is a con- 
suming fire, yet the glory of God in his salvation shall 
be revealed to him while yet in the flesh ; and it shall 
be for and to himself, and not left to be imparted to him 
by another who may see it. 

Though my reins be consumed within me. 

The reins, or human affections, delights and strength, 
are consumed by the appearance to our view of the 
great God our Saviour. By that glorious revelation 
our own weakness and vileness are fully made known 
to us. When Job saw him he said, Wherefore I abhor 
myself. Moses and Manoah and Gideon and others 
were forced to acknowledge their nothingness when he 
appeared especially to them. When Isaiah had a vision 
of " the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up," 
he said, " Woe is me ! for I am undone ; because I am 
a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a 
people of unclean lips ; for 7nine eyes have seen the 
King, the Lord of hosts." Isa. vi. 5. When Daniel 
saw the Holy One, he says, " There remained no 
strength in me ; for my comeliness was turned in me 
into corruption, and I retained no strength." Dan. x. 8. 
When Peter first saw the Lord in an exhibition of his 
power, " he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, Depart 



SIXTH ANSWER OF JOB. 1 33 

from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord." Luke v. 8. 
So when the Lord reveals himself to any of his chil- 
dren, their reins are consumed within them, their 
strength and comeliness disappear ; but they rise up in 
the infinitely greater and more glorious strength and 
beauty and joy in the Lord, who becomes their portion 
for ever. 

But ye should say, Why persecute we him, seeing 
the root of the matter is found in me. Here is the 
only thing we have yet found that would seem to indi- 
cate that Job regarded his friends as children of grace. 
He appears here to acknowledge that they were able to 
discern in him the root of the matter, or that holy prin- 
ciple by which the children of God are known, but 
which is evident only to anointed eyes. Yet he is 
only declaring what they ought to say if they are true 
teachers or comforters. If they find the root of the 
matter in him, they ought to withdraw from persecut- 
ing or fighting him, though they. see what they disap- 
prove. There is a woe pronounced upon any who of- 
fend one of the "little ones" of our Saviour; and all 
of his children are " little ones." So Job says : Be ye 
afraid of the sword; for wrath bringeth the punish- 
ments of the sword, that ye may know there is a judg- 
ment. Like this is the warning in the second Psalm, 1 2 : 
All the workers of iniquity and opposers of the children 
of God shall perish as by the sword. 
12 




XII. 
SECOND ANSWER OF ZOPHAR. 



CHAPTER XX. 

In this chapter is recorded the second and last speech 
of Zophar. Therefore do my thoughts cause me to 
answer, and for this I make haste. I have heard the 
check of my reproach, and the spirit of my under- 
standing causeth me to answer. He has no doubt 
been waiting very impatiently for his turn again to 
speak, since Job so boldly and completely met and 
checked his former reproach. He feels very confident 
in his own understanding, as all worldly teachers do, 
and acknowledges that it is the spirit of his understand- 
ing that prompts him to answer. Had he that under- 
standing which the Son of God gives (i John v. 20), 
he would not be in such eager haste to answer. 

Knowest thou not this of old, since man was placed 
upon the earth, that the triumphing of the wicked is 
short and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment? 

Throughout this discourse he argues this proposition 
as a natural fact, or rather makes arbitrary statements 
of particular punishments that shall happen to the 
wicked. This seems to be his theory, that all the race 
of mankind is divided into two classes — viz., those 
whose conduct is just and fair, and those whose course 

134 



SECOND ANSWER OF ZOPHAR. 1 35 

is unjust, cruel, oppressive and disgraceful. Such a 
distinction the natural mind can easily understand. 
He takes up the case of one of the latter class, whom 
he supposes to have been trying to conceal his wicked 
practices under the cloak of religion, and declares how 
he will be punished. The kind of troubles he speaks 
of and his style of bringing them to view show that he 
speaks of temporal judgments. We observe that the 
line is sharply and distinctly drawn in his theory be- 
tween these two classes, all upon the one side being 
wholly good and all upon the other being wholly evil. 
But a glance at the world of mankind as it is and as it 
has always been, simply in the natural view, will prove 
this theory to be all wrong. 

We see, it is true, a great difference in the dispositions 
and conduct of men. Some by nature are kind and 
some cruel ; some are honest and some dishonest ; some 
appear brave and frank and honorable, and some cow- 
ardly and deceitful and vile. But was there ever a time 
when a line could be draw T n with certainty, so that we 
should see all upon the one side good and all upon the 
other side evil ? Are there not such gradations of good 
and evil, in this natural view of the subject, as would 
prevent the possibility of a just separation by any man? 
The most cruel and dishonest appear to show some 
better traits at times, while the best and most lovely in 
men's view are not without visible faults ; and between 
these two extremes there seem to be all degrees of 
good and evil mixed together in an infinite variety of 
proportions. What wisdom of man would be able to 
distribute punishments and rewards with an equal and 
exact measurement of justice to all ? And how would 
the greatest wisdom that should undertake the task 



136 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

shrink back confounded when it should find the vilest 
and most cruel of tyrants, as Manasseh, manifesting 
tenderness, and the best of men, as David, committing 
the most heinous crime ! 

Why, then, does Zophar draw so definite a distinc- 
tion, and describe the wicked and the hypocrite with 
such confident certainty, and measure so exactly his 
punishments? It is through enmity to Job and his 
doctrine, and is but a form of railing, and a most artful 
form, devised by the enemy of truth ; for in describing 
the hypocrite it is clear that he has only Job in view, 
and intends the sting of his reproach for him. He dis- 
covers in all that he has said not the least recognition 
of the truth that all men are sinners, made so by the 
disobedience of one man ; that by nature there is no 
difference between them, all being, by nature, children 
of wrath ( Eph. ii. 3) ; that depravity is in the heart of 
all, and, only as restrained by the grace of God, it 
manifests itself in the acts of those we call good as 
well as in those we regard as wicked. Neither does 
this professed teacher of holy things intimate the ne- 
cessity of any Redeemer. 

But then it is not true, as Zophar has said, that the 
unjust and wicked, even as he distinguishes them, are 
made to suffer more in this life, and are cut off sooner 
and in a more terrible way, than those who are good. 
On the contrary, they seem to be most prosperous. The 
wickedest kings have been most powerful, and have had 
the longest reigns, and the most unscrupulous men 
have lived to old age in worldly prosperity. But this 
will appear in the next chapter. 



mmmmm 



XIII. 
SEVENTH ANSWER OF JOB. 



CHAPTER XXI 

Hear diligently my speech, and let this be your 
consolations. They have failed to afford him consola- 
tion by speaking themselves, and all the consolation 
he looks for from them, or that they are capable of giv- 
ing him, is to hear with attention while he reproves 
their errors and tells them the truth. Suffer me that 
I may speak; and after that I have spoken, mock on. 
As for ?ne, is my complaint to man ? and if it were 
so, -why should not my spirit be troubled? He has be- 
fore called them to take notice that he is not complain- 
ing to men or asking anything at their hands. His is 
the cry of a distressed soul before God. But if his 
complaints were such as they have understood them to 
be, yet they have not truthfully replied to them nor 
shown why he should not be troubled, being a just and 
upright man. He is going to show them that the 
reasoning of Zophar is all false, and that the righteous, 
instead of the wicked, suffer here ; and he tells them 
to listen silently and be astonished ; and says of him- 
self, in view of the wonderful and inscrutable dealings 
of God with men, Even when I remember I am 
afraid, and trembling taketh hold on my jlesh. 
12* 137 



138 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

Now follows the statement of Job which stands in 
direct contradiction to the assertions of Zophar : 

Wherefore do the wicked live, become old, yea are 
mighty in power? This is the strongest form of asser- 
tion, taking the fact as something that all who have 
eyes to look abroad must have seen, and expressing 
only the wonder why it should be so. It is so unac- 
countable to the natural mind that God should suffer 
his enemies to prosper and be happy in the world, 
while those who love him suffer such great afflictions. 

Their seed is established in their sight with them, 
and their offspring before their eyes. Their houses 
are safe from fear, 7teither is the rod of God upon 
them. Their bull gender eth, and faileth not; their 
cow calveth, and casteth not her calf. They send 
forth their little ones like a flock, and their children 
dance. They take the timbrel and harp, and rejoice 
at the sound of the organ. They spend their days 
in wealth, and in a moment go down to the grave. 
In this particular description of their prosperity and 
personal comfort and joy we see a full and specific 
contradiction of the particular assertions of Zophar, 
following the wicked in their enjoyment till the grave 
receives them. 

It is evident from considerations already fully set forth 
that Job speaks of those who have " spiritual wicked- 
ness." The distinction which he makes between the 
righteous and the wicked is not, like Zophar's, of a 
worldly character, but is the true spiritual distinction. 
The righteous are those who hope in God and love his 
word, and the wicked are those who hate his truth and 
love their own ways, and exalt their own wisdom. He 
has thus figuratively described the worldly prosperity 



SEVENTH ANSWER OF JOB. 139 

of false religion, and those who hold it. Thev have 
their good things in this life ; and since they prosper so 
well in their worldly religion and are free from terrors 
even in death — for "there are no bonds in their death," 
to be a sign to those who remain — therefore they say 
unto God — unto that God who reveals himself in the 
doctrine they hate — Depart from us ; for we desire 
not the knowledge of thy ways. What is the Al- 
mighty, that we should serve him ? And what profit 
should we have if we pray unto him? So, even to 
this time, when the God of election and predestination, 
the absolutely sovereign God of the Bible, is presented, 
the same characters say, Why should we serve such a 
God? what profit would it be to us to pray? If every- 
thing is predestinated, and if none are to be saved but 
the elect, then we can change nothing by praying, nor 
advance our interests or affect our future state by serv- 
ing him. For they know nothing of true prayer or 
praise to a God they love and adore, but only care to 
do what they suppose will help them to heaven ; and 
if all is fixed in God's decree, then, they say, they 
might as well go on in sin ; thus proving that they still 
love it better than holiness. 

And now Job speaks of their punishment, for they 
shall not escape. He has already said that they in a 
moment go down to the grave ; and the peculiar form 
of this expression concerning their end, after so much 
prosperity, reminds us of the similar expressions of 
David when in the light of the sanctuary he was able 
to see the end of those whose prosperity he had envied : 
" How are they brought into desolation as in a moment ! 
they are utterly consumed with terrors." Ps. lxxiii. 19. 

Zo, their good is not in their haiid; the counsel of 



140 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

the wicked is far from me. Of this will we speak in 
considering a similar expression in the next chapter. 
How oft is the candle of the wicked fut out? and 
how oft cometh their destruction upon thei?i? These 
are questions for those to consider who so confidently 
speak of how the wicked are punished in the world. 
Look abroad now and consider the cases of all we 
know, and see if sorrows and afflictions are distributed 
to those we condemn as we think they ought to be. 
God distributeth sorrows in his anger. They are as 
stubble before the wind, and as chaff that the storm 
carrieth away. God layeth up his iniquity for his 
children. His goods and enjoyments, in which he had 
lived in iniquity, are left to his children, who follow on 
in his ways, undisturbed by any sign from him. He 
rewardeth him, and he shall know it, but the know- 
ledge is not in this life, so that he can tell those that 
come after, who shall be left to the iniquitous ways they 
love. The rich man in the parable appeared to be 
greatly troubled about his brethren, and would have 
sent them a warning, but was not allowed. They must 
be left to manifest what was in them by the simple test 
of Moses and the prophets. If they heard not them, 
if they loved not God's word, it would not create a love 
for it to send them a warning from the dead, although 
it might frighten them into feigning such a love. Luke 
xvi. 31. His eyes shall see his destruction, and he 
shall drink of the wrath of the Almighty. But in 
what manner shall this wrath be visited upon him? 
Man would say, Do to him just what Zophar had de- 
clared was to be done to the wicked, and just w r hat Job 
had suffered ; that is, deprive him of his property, afflict 
him through his children's sufferings and rack his body 



SEVENTH ANSWER OF JOB. 141 

with pain and his soul with terrors here, where men 
can witness and gloat over his punishments. But this 
is not God's way. The rich man did not begin to suffer 
while men could see him, but after he left the world. 
The punishment of the wicked is his sudden destruc- 
tion and sufferings beyond, that mortal eye cannot see. 
For what pleasure hath he in his house after him 
when the number of his months is cut off in the midst? 
This last verse shows that we have correctly stated the 
doctrine of Job. 

This doctrine is directly opposed to human reason, 
and is not entertained by any of the systems of worldly 
religion. But, Shall any teach God knowledge? see- 
ing he judgeth those that are high. He says that 
his ways are not our ways, but are higher than ours as 
the heavens are higher than the earth. Isa. lv. 8, 9. 
Job now speaks of something that is often seen, as an 
illustration of our inability to understand the ways of 
God, our incapacity for judging and the falsity of Zo- 
phar's statements. 

One dieth in his full strength, being wholly at ease 
and quiet. His breasts are full of milk, and his 
bones are moistened with marrow. And another 
dieth in the bitterness of his soul, and never eateth 
with pleasure. And we often wonder why one should 
suffer so much more than the other. This is among the 
inscrutable things of God. But Job will not allow a 
pause here for his friends to pronounce their false 
judgment, that the sufferer was a more wicked man 
than the other ; but goes on to the end of both : They 
shall lie down alike in the dust, and the worms shall 
cover them. So far, therefore, as the human eye can 
follow them, their ends are alike ; and what advantage 



142 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

now has the one of all his worldly comfort over the 
other ? 

Job then challenges them with their thoughts and de- 
vices which they have wrongfully imagined concerning 
him, shows them what is the real end of the wicked — 
that he is reserved to the day of destruction, and shall 
be brought forth to the day of wrath, when God, who 
alone is able, shall declare his way to his face a?id 
repay him what he hath done, though he be hidden 
from mortal reach in the grave — and concludes by ask- 
ing, How, then, comfort ye me in vain, seei?ig in your 
answers there remaineth falsehood? 

The questions, Who shall declare his way to his face ? 
and who shall repay him what he hath done? are very 
suggestive of man's incapacity to decree or execute 
judgment. Even if it were possible for us to decide 
upon just the measure and kind of suffering due to any 
man for his wickedness, yet, before we begin to exe- 
cute it, he is hidden from us in the grave, and we stand 
helpless and abashed. Knowing that though we must 
soon enter those dark portals also, yet we have lost the 
opportunity of inflicting punishment upon him for ever. 




XIV. 

THIRD ANSWER OF ELIPHAZ. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

In this chapter we have the third and closing argu- 
ment of Eliphaz. He asks derisively whether the Al- 
mighty can be pleased or profited by Job's righteous- 
ness. We may notice these questions more particularly, 
with the misunderstanding of Job that they imply, and 
the false intimations they make concerning his doctrine, 
when we come to the apparently similar questions 
of Elihu in the thirty-fifth chapter, which are justly 
asked, but for a very different purpose from that of 
Eliphaz, and bearing upon an error that he has never 
discovered. 

He now insinuates no longer, but makes his charges 
plain and direct : Is not thy wickedness great, and 
thine iniquities infinite P For thou hast taken a 
fledge from thy brother for naught, and stripped the 
naked of their clothing. And having thus specified a 
number of cruel and unjust acts of which he declares 
Job to be guilty, he says, Therefore snares are round 
about thee, and sudden fear troubleth thee. 

It was absolutely necessary for the maintenance of 
their false doctrine to insist that Job's afflictions are 
judgments for personal wickedness ; for as soon as they 

143 



144 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

should yield this point, they must yield at once their 
whole system of religion — a system that presents hap- 
piness as a reward for personal merit and good works, 
and affliction as a punishment for evil deeds. There- 
fore Eliphaz continues to repeat his charges of wicked- 
ness. Though he can give no direct proof of these evil 
acts, he chooses to consider his present state as suffi- 
cient evidence of them, and also of the aggravating sin 
of hypocrisy in hiding his crimes under a cloak of re- 
ligion, and saying, How doth God know? Can he 
judge through the thick cloud ? He therefore takes 
it upon him to warn Job that God is very high, and so 
nothing can be hid from his sight. 

Hast thou marked the old way which wicked men 
have trodden? which were cut down out of time — 
whose foundation was overflown with a Jlood ? 

This allusion to the old world of wicked men which 
was destroyed by the flood is made as a proof that God 
does bring temporal judgments upon men for wicked- 
ness. But it sustains the theory which Job has pre- 
sented in the last chapter, and not at all that of Eliphaz 
and his friends ; for those wicked men, as well as those 
of Sodom and Gomorrah, lived on in the enjoyments 
of the world until sudden destruction came upon them 
as in a moment, and they were utterly consumed with 
terrors, and were not left, like Job, afflicted in the 
world. 

Which said unto God, Depart from us; and what 
can the Almighty do for them ? Tet he filed their 
houses with good thi?igs ; but the counsel of the wicked 
is far from ?ne. 

This is similar to the expression used by Job con- 
cerning the wicked in the preceding chapter, but stops 



THIRD ANSWER OF ELIPHAZ. 145 

just short of the description of spiritual wickedness. 
It is to natural things only that he alludes. He sup- 
poses those wicked men, and Job with them, to have 
thought that they did not need God's help, whom they 
looked upon as so high, walking in the circuit of heav- 
en, that he would not stoop to notice them, but that 
they could accomplish their purposes without him. 
And yet he asserts that God had given them their 
worldly riches, which he speaks of as good things. 
Now the words of the wicked, according to Job's dec- 
laration, are, Depart from us, for we desire not the 
knowledge of thy ways. Here is their rejection of his 
doctrine. His way of salvation they hate, and desire 
not the knowledge of it. They desire a religion that 
gives worldly benefits, bears a worldly glory, " stands 
in meats and drinks and carnal ordinances," and pros- 
pers in the sight of men. But he says, Lo, their good 
is not in their hand ; that is, they cannot hold or re- 
tain these worldly good things, and so they are of no 
real value. And contemplating their false ways and 
counsel, Job says, The counsel of the wicked is far 
from me. He does not approve it, nor does he at all 
follow it. But Eliphaz finds fault that the wicked, 
whose house the Lord fills with good things, have not 
acknowledged his help, but have gone on wickedly, 
and so the Lord has deprived them (witness Job as an 
example) of these good things. He also says, The 
counsel of the wicked is far from me. 

The righteous see it and are glad, and the innocent 
laugh them to scorn. So he and his friends rejoice in 
what they regard as the vengeance of God upon Job, 
and boastingly present their own continued prosperity 
as evidence of their goodness. Whereas our substance 
13 K 



146 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

is not cut down, but the remnant of them the Jire 
consumeth. 

Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace ; 
thereby good shall come unto thee. Receive, I pray 
thee, the law from his mouth, and lay up his words 
in thy heart. If thou return unto the Almighty, thou 
shalt be built up, thou shall put away iniquity far 
from thy tabernacles. Then shalt thou lay up gold 
as dust, and the gold of Ophir as the stones of the 
brooks. Tea, the Almighty shall be thy defence, and 
thou shalt have plenty of silver. 

Here we have the closing exhortation of Eliphaz, in 
which is expressed the whole principle of worldly or 
Arminian doctrine. Now Eliphaz and his three friends 
seem to be regarded by many theological writers and 
speakers as good men, whose doctrine was in the main 
correct, as well as that of Job, and that their fault was 
in being too harsh with him, though he deserved a good 
deal of their reproof. These words of Eliphaz are 
often used, as are other parts of his and his friends' 
speeches, as a text, and the doctrine they present is 
generally preached. It appears strange that any should 
so lightly regard the words of the Lord concerning 
these men, even if they were unable clearly to discern 
their error. It was not their manner, but their doc- 
trine, that was wrong. They are not reproved for 
speaking harshly to Job, but for speaking falsely of God. 
Te have not spoken of me the thing that is right* as 
my servant fob hath. 

Those who have been taught of God, as all of Zion's 
children are, may easily discover the error that lies in 
this exhortation of Eliphaz : Acquaint now thyself with 
him. We are assured that Job already knew and feared 



THIRD ANSWER OF ELIPHAZ. 147 

God ; the very fact, therefore, that Eliphaz thus exhorts 
him makes it extremely doubtful whether he was him- 
self acquainted with God ; for, had he known the true 
God, he must have recognized that knowledge in Job. 
Besides, one who knows God will know that such an 
exhortation, implying that it is in the power of men to 
become acquainted with him by some endeavor of their 
own, is false and vain. God is known only by revela- 
tion, as the Scriptures abundantly teach, and as every 
saved sinner knows by experience. "No man knoweth 
the Father save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son 
will reveal him." Matt. xi. 27. We might as well send 
one out with a torchlight to seek for the sun at mid- 
night as to imply by any exhortation that one in a state 
of nature, dead in sins, could become acquainted with 
God the Saviour by the light of natural reason. As 
the inhabitant of the earth can only see the natural sun 
and feel the cheering warmth of his beams when he 
has arisen above the horizon, so the sinner will remain 
in spiritual darkness, and will be satisfied with that 
darkness, as Paul was, until the Sun of Righteousness 
shall arise upon him with healing in his wings. In his 
own light only can we see his face. "In thy light shall 
we see light." Ps. xxxvi. 9. 

The command of the Lord, " Seek ye the Lord while 
he may be found" ( Isa. lvi. 6), is to his people Israel, 
who are already acquainted with him. It is addressed 
to those who are children of the day and not of the 
night. They are to come out of their dark places — out 
of error, out of the false systems and associations of 
the world — and seek the Lord in his truth and in his 
people,- in his promises and in his glory. But it is not 
addressed to those unto whom the revelation of God 



148 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

has not been made ; not addressed literally to the Chal- 
deans or Assyrians, or to any other nation but Israel ; 
not addressed spiritually to any but spiritual Israel, for 
whom, and for none others, Christ died and rose again, 
that they might be " saved in the Lord with an ever- 
lasting salvation." Isa. xlv. 17. And it is a command 
that will be obeyed : " I have not said to the seed of 
Israel, Seek ye my face in vain." 

This truth, of course, being truth, the natural man 
will not receive, notwithstanding the plain and abun- 
dant testimony of Scripture. " The natural man re- 
ceiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are 
foolishness unto him ; neither can he know them, be- 
cause they are spiritually discerned." 1 Cor. ii. 14. 
When natural men, therefore, take upon them the forms 
of religion and begin the business of teaching it before 
God has called them out of Nature's darkness into his 
marvelous light, this is their principal business, to ex- 
hort men to acquaint themselves with God. And upon 
the belief that they can do this, and can be greatly as- 
sisted in the work of forming this acquaintance by 
others, rests the supposed necessity for all the various 
schools and institutions for teaching and spreading re- 
ligion which have been established by men as auxilia- 
ries to the Church. Although none of these were es- 
tablished by the Head of the Church, nor authorized 
by even a suggestion of his in his Word, yet they are 
supposed to be very necessary, and their human authors 
and supporters take to themselves great credit for their 
wisdom and zeal displayed in these inventions, the ne- 
cessity of which was not foreseen by our Lord when 
he established his Church. 

If the doctrine of Eliphaz and his brethren of this 



THIRD ANSWER OF ELIPHAZ. 149 

age were correct, then these things would be very 
advantageous, if not absolutely necessary. But it is 
not correct, as we have seen, and as those who read 
even the letter of the Word ought to know. The Church 
was established by our Saviour precisely as it shall for 
ever remain, with no changes, either by adding or tak- 
ing away. 

And be at peace. Those who are justified by faith 
in our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for them, have peace 
with God. Rom. v. 1. He has made this peace for 
them. All other cries of peace which men are sup- 
posed to have made, or to be able to make with God, 
are vain. " They cry Peace, peace, when there is no 
peace." Jer. vi. 14. 

We need follow this exhortation no farther. The re- 
wards promised to Job are all worldly, as are all those 
offered now for obtaining the same kind of religion — 
the privilege of laying up gold as dust, having an all- 
powerful defence against temporal enemies, and plenty 
of silver ; having all his prayers or worldly desires 
answered, and all his decrees established. All this is 
well suited to our worldly mind, but could by no means 
answer such needs as those of David when he wrote 
the fifty-first Psalm, after his great transgression ; of 
Peter when bitterly weeping because he had denied his 
Lord ; of Paul, when stricken to the earth by a great 
light ; of the man possessed with a legion of devils ; 
or of Stephen, when his enemies were stoning him to 
death. All these found, as the poor, heavy-laden sinner 
always does, in the blessed Redeemer that which satisfies 
all their needs and spiritual desires, soothes and heals 
the broken and contrite heart, and gives everlasting de- 
liverance. 

13* 



XV. 

EIGHTH ANSWER OF JOB. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

Then yob answered a?zd said, Even to-day is 
my comfilai)it bitter ; my stroke is heavier than my 
groaning . 

With what a wonderful power a few words uttered 
by this afflicted servant of God are made to set forth a 
great extent of grief! Only by inspiration can language 
be arranged so fully and touchingly to express the feel- 
ing of sorrow and anguish. 

So long have his friends been talking, such a multi- 
tude of words have they uttered, and yet he still stands 
alone and desolate in his sorrow, as though no voice 
had been uttered in his hearing nor any friend come 
near him ; for they have not touched his complaint, nor 
even seen the place of his grief. Well might he ask, 
Shall vain words have an end? He is weary of an- 
swering those who will still reassert their falsehood 
and fail to understand the nature of his trouble. He 
does not, as formerly, reply directly to them, but seems 
to lose sight of them for a moment as the full bitterness 
of his condition comes with new force upon him ; yet 
answers their charges of extravagance in his cries, while 
seeming to say to himself that his groaning has not ex- 

150 



EIGHTH ANSWER OF JOB. 15 1 

pressed the full heaviness of his grief. The trouble of 
our depravity can never be so fully expressed as to sat- 
isfy us that it has all been told. Heavy as our groan- 
ings are, the affliction is heavier than the expression, 
and finally wears us out and hushes all our cries in 
death. But hope sees an eternal purity and joy beyond, 
obtained for us through the resurrection of the Just 
One. 

Oh that I knew where I might find him ! — that I 
might come even to his seat I Eliphaz, ignorant of 
the experience of God's people, has advised them to ac- 
quaint themselves with God. Job expresses the strong 
desire that is in their hearts even in darkness, the long- 
ing for God's presence, and thus answers the false doc- 
trine intimated in that ignorant advice by something 
above argument. He has known God, that holy Being 
who inhabits eternity, and who comes in his power and 
beauty into the hearts of his children. But now for a 
long time the light of his countenance has been with- 
drawn, and the poor sinner is left with his weakness 
and depravity. But the spirit of prayer and supplica- 
tion is in his heart, and he feels sure that could he but 
be enabled to realize God's presence he could plead 
successfully, and that God's great power would not be 
exerted against him, but that strength would be given 
him. 

I would order my cause before him and fill my 
mouth with arguments. I would know the words 
which he would answer me, and understand what he 
would say unto me. Will he plead against me with 
his great power? JSfo ; but he would put strength in 
me. When we have felt a strong and urging desire to 
plead with God, but could not realize his presence nor 



I5 2 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

enter into that communion we desired, could we but 
analyze and understand our feelings at such a time and 
what it is that prompts the desire to plead, we should 
fully understand these words of Job. He shows by his 
language the knowledge that only through a Mediator 
can any come unto God, and that when he finds him 
and comes to his seat, it will be when he shall see him 
in the person of his Son, who sits upon his mediatorial 
throne. There the righteous might dispute with hi?n; 
so should I be delivered for ever from my fudge. 
Only by faith in his Redeemer can he speak of himself 
as righteous before God. That Redeemer has deliv- 
ered all his people from their Judge, having borne their 
sins and freely justified them by his blood. 

But w T e cannot rejoice in this redemption while his 
presence is withheld. In this affliction Job " walks in 
darkness, and has no light" from the Sun of Righteous- 
ness. He longs to see again the God of his salvation, 
for he knows that he still reigns. Behold, I go for- 
ward, but he is not there; and backward, but I can- 
not perceive him; on the left hand, where he doth 
work, but I cannot behold him ; he hideth himself on 
the right hand that I cannot see him. How different 
this from his Arminian friends ! They have no such 
trouble. All they have to do, according to their self- 
complacent opinion, is to put themselves in motion and 
they can soon find the Lord, whom they believe to be 
anxiously waiting and calling for them to come and 
find him. But they never find that God of whom it is 
said, " Verily, thou art a God that hidest thyself, O 
God of Israel, the Saviour." Isa. xlv. 15. 

Those from whom God has withdrawn the cheering 
light of his presence are commanded still to trust in him 



EIGHTH ANSWER OF JOB. 153 

(Isa. 1. 10) ; and Job clearly expresses this trust in the 
hearts of God's people when he says, But he knoweth 
the way that I take; when he hath tried me, I shall 
come forth as gold. Here speaks the faith of God's 
elect. Though suffering so deeply, he has yet full con- 
fidence that it is all in the wise purpose of God and for 
the trial of his faith, which is much more precious than 
the trial of gold that perisheth. 1 Pet. i. 7. And not 
in vain self-confidence, but to express the effect of that 
trial, he says, My foot hath held his steps, his way 
have I kept and not declined. Neither have I gone 
back from the commandment of his lips; I have 
esteemed the words of his mouth more than my neces- 
sary food. This was truly said of him as a man, but 
even more truly and fully as a saint and as a type of the 
Church. David frequently asserts the same of himself 
in the one hundred and nineteenth Psalm and in other 
places (see particularly Ps. xliv. 14-20). And the fact 
of his sins and transgressions does not affect this truth, 
for it is in Christ that this faithfulness is, and the love 
for God's words, which he has given us, no darkness or 
sin can destroy. Job had continued to maintain sound 
doctrine, though his friends ridiculed, and though even 
God in his providence seemed turned against him. 
There may also be an intimation of the wonder of his 
natural mind why God should continue to afflict one 
who continued faithful, for the next expression seems 
to be the answer of faith to some such wonder. 

But he is in one mind, and who can turn him? and 
what his soul desireth even that he doeth. For he 
performeth the thing that is appointed for me; and 
many such things are zvith him. The doctrine of 
God's predestination or absolute decrees concerning all 



154 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

things, which so many are afraid of and will not receive, 
appears to be Job's comfort. He is certain that all 
these afflictions are appointed, and it is because he 
knows God to be an absolute Sovereign that he is 
tj'oubled at his presence, and sinks down humbled and 
softened under his mighty hand. Therefore am I 
troubled at his presence; when I consider, I am 
afraid of him. For God maketh my heart soft, and 
the Almighty troubleth me; because I was not cut 
off before the darkness, neither hath he covered the 
darkness from my face. 

He trembles at what may yet be in store for him, 
knowing that God, having with a fixed purpose brought 
him into this darkness, will not stay his hand until he 
shall be fully tried. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

I will only remark, concerning this chapter, that 
Job appears to speak here figuratively of false teachers 
and to show the cruelty of the spirit that moves them, 
and the dangerous and destructive nature of their doc- 
trine. In other parts of the Scriptures we see the same 
characters variously represented — as the strange woman 
whose ways are movable, deceitful and destructive 
( Prov. v. 6, 7) ; as the vile person and the churl, who 
make empty the soul of the hungry, cause the drink of 
the thirsty to fail, and destroy the poor with lying words 
( Isa. x. 1,2; xxxiii. 6, 7) ; as the pastors who destroy 
the sheep ( Jer. xxiii.) ; and in many parts of the New 
Testament as false prophets and teachers, with the 
Pharisees, of whose pernicious doctrine the saints are 
warned to beware. 



XVI. 

THIRD ANSWER OF BILDAD. 



CHAPTER XXV. 

In this brief answer of Bildad, which closes the ar- 
gument on the part of Job's friends, the view we have 
taken of them as men totally ignorant of the truth is 
fully justified. The persistency of Job in his way seems 
to have made them silent with astonishment. Bildad, 
however, finds breath left to merely repeat that argu- 
ment which stands out prominently in their minds as a 
sufficient answer to the doctrine of Job and his claims 
to righteousness. He refers to the greatness and 
majesty of God, and asks, How then can man be jus- 
tified with God? or how can he be clean that is born 
of a woman? Behold even the moon, and it shineth 
not; yea, the stars are not pure in his sight. How 
much less man, that is a worm; and the son of man, 
which is a worm? 

Bildad and his friends do not know how man can be 
justified or clean, because they do not know God's sal- 
vation. This question is not asked, as was a similar 
one on the part of Job, with a conviction that justifica- 
tion is necessary, and with a strong desire to know how 
it can be ; but this question from Bildad is a strong 
form of assertion that such a thing cannot possibly be, 

155 



156 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

and also an implication that it is not necessary. Their 
system of religion does not contemplate the necessity 
of such a thing. On the contrary it is regarded as the 
height of presumption for any one to think of being 
pure and holy in the sight of God. Their doctrine is, 
as has been noticed before, that man is to exert his 
powers to the utmost, and will be rewarded with a po- 
sition high and bright in proportion to the excellence 
of his work, but that he will for ever be so far beneath 
the Almighty in holiness as to be only like a worm. 
Here, however, is where we shall find the real presump- 
tion and vanity of the human heart. If man is as a 
worm, as he truly is in the sight of God, though they 
say it with mock humility, it is great presumption to 
think of the works of such a vile thing being worthy 
of any reward from a holy God. But of the sinfulness 
and painfulness of sin they have known nothing, and it 
matters not to them how far beneath the Almighty they 
may be, so they are well up in the sight of men. All 
pride and ignorance and folly. 



XVII. 

CONCLUSION OF JOB'S PARABLE. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

But Job answered and said, How hast thou helped 
him that is without power? how saves t thou the arm 
that hath no strength? How hast thou counseled 
him that hath no wisdom? and how hast thou plenti- 
fully declared the thing as it is? There seems to be 
some irony in these questions, and especially the last. 
Bildad has not spoken too highly of the greatness of 
God, nor is his speech any ways adequate to the sub- 
ject, but yet he has spoken false doctrine, as we have 
already shown partially, and as is fully demonstrated 
by these questions, in which the condition of the quick- 
ened sinner is briefly presented, without power, with- 
out strength, without wisdom. How has the speech 
of Bildad helped one who is in such a case? It may 
suit one who vainly imagines himself possessed of these, 
but it is no good to the poor sinner to be told that he 
cannot hope to be clean in God's sight, and that he 
must earn whatever happiness he shall get. Nothing 
short of infinite purity and holiness will satisfy the de- 
sires of the sinsick soul. The righteousness after 
which he hungers and thirsts is nothing less than the 
righteousness of God, and these desires and hunger- 
14 157 



158 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

ings, presumptions as they seem to the world, are fully 
satisfied in our blessed Redeemer, who cleanses us 
from all sin and clothes us with his own righteousness, 
so that we are made the righteousness of God in him. 
2 Cor. v. 21. 

Bildad appears to have thought that Job must have 
forgotten how great and powerful God is, or he could 
never have dared to speak of coming to where he was 
and pleading with him. But Job now goes far beyond 
his friend in ascribing greatness and power to him. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

Moreover, yob continued his -parable and said — 

We have regarded Job's speech from the beginning 
as a parable, and now it is expressly so called. Through 
his parable, from the time he first "opened his mouth," 
the deep things of God have been presented, "the mys- 
teries of the kingdom" or Church of God, which our 
Saviour said were spoken to them that are without in 
parables. Mark iv. 11. 

As God liveth, who hath taken away my judgment ; 
and the Almighty who hath vexed my soul. 

Being a perfect and an upright man, men would 
judge him worthy of peace and prosperity. The world 
would regard this as his rightful judgment ; and so fixed 
is it in the minds of his friends that those who are just 
must be favored of God in the world, that the very fact 
of Job's being afflicted seems to them sufficient evidence 
that he is wicked. Whatever has been done to him he 
has frequently acknowledged to be from God. There 



CONCLUSION OF JOB'S PARABLE. 159 

may be expressed here the rebellious and impatient 
feeling of the carnal mind in the allusion to God's 
having taken away his judgment and vexed his soul, 
but we must remember that it is as one of the saints 
that he says it. He has questioned concerning God's 
dealing thus afflictively with him w T hile he appears to 
favor the wicked. But so have Jeremiah and other in- 
spired men : " Righteous art thou, O Lord, when I 
plead with thee, yet let me talk with thee of thy judg- 
ments. Wherefore doth the way of the wicked pros- 
per? Wherefore are all they happy that deal very 
treacherously?" Jer. xii. 1. 

Job in this place appears to express the spirit of the 
prophet when he speaks for Zion : "Woe is me for my 
hurt! my wound is grievous; but I said, Truly this is 
a grief, and I must bear it. My tabernacle is spoiled, 
and all my cords are broken ; my children are gone 
forth of me, and they are not ; there is none to set up 
my tent any more, and to set up my curtains." Jer. x. 
19, 20. There seems a great similarity in this to Job's 
condition and also to his spirit here. He speaks of God 
as having done this to him in order to set forth clearly 
his steadfastness in the faith and his trust. Although 
his condition has been rendered so sad, and apparently 
without cause, yet as that God liveth, All the while 
my breath is in me, and the Spirit of God is in my 
nostrils. My lips shall not speak wickedness nor my 
tongue utter deceit. God forbid that I should jus- 
tify you; till I die I will not remove my integrity 
from me. My righteousness I hold fast, and will 
not let it go ; my heart shall not reproach me so long 
as I live. 

This certainly appears to the natural reason very in- 



160 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

consistent in Job to speak so confidently of his integrity 
and his freedom from self-reproach, while he has ac- 
knowledged having sinned and has so bitterly com- 
plained of corruption. But it is " all plain to him that 
understandeth." Prov. viii. 9. Here we are again 
called to observe the secret of the Christian experi- 
ence of the way of salvation. The same Paul who 
acknowledged himself the chief of sinners and said, u O 
wretched man that I am !" said, also, " I have kept the 
faith," and knew that a crown of righteousness was 
laid up for him. The righteousness of the saint is in 
the doctrine which Job held so fast and would not let 
go — in the Redeemer which that doctrine presents. 
Weak and helpless as he feels in himself, yet he is as- 
sured that those who speak a doctrine he hates shall not 
steal away his heart from that truth, from that precious 
hope of righteousness, nor induce him to speak deceit- 
fully concerning himself or the truth, and so justify 
them. Should he talk differently from what he feels, 
his heart must reproach him. While Job represents 
the " perfect man," or people of God under all their 
afflictions and their suffering on account of sin, he also 
manifests their steadfastness in the truth. 

The remaining portion of this chapter presents the 
case of Job's enemy, the wicked man, " the man of 
sin," or Antichrist, showing what his punishment shall 
be at the hand of God. " When the wicked spring as 
the grass, and when all the workers of iniquity do 
flourish, it is that they shall be destroyed for ever." Ps. 
xcii. 7. The sword of God's wrath awaits all the chil- 
dren of Babylon, and their end is appointed in judgment. 



CONCLUSION OF JOB'S PARABLE. 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

Surely there is a vein for the silver and a place 
for the gold where they fne it. Iron is taken out 
of the earth and brass is molten out of the stone. 
Here are four most valuable metals mentioned, with a 
suggestion of man's power as manifested in getting 
them out of the earth and refining them for use. He 
setteth an end to darkness and searcheth out all per- 
fection : the stones of darkness and the shadozv of 
death. This refers probably to man's power to over- 
come the obstacle of darkness in the depths of the earth, 
and search out the precious stones and treasures that 
are concealed there in an obscurity that is like the 
shadow of death ; and so figuratively sets forth his 
power to search out all the perfection of the earth and 
set an end to the gross darkness of natural ignorance 
by sending forth the light of natural or earthly know- 
ledge. Before him, as he digs down and presses on- 
ward in his explorations, the food breaketh out from 
the inhabitant; even the waters forgotten of the foot ; 
they are dried up, they are gone away from ?nen. In 
the depths of the mine the waters that break out where 
the foot of man has never been are conducted away, so 
that the search of man for precious things is not hin- 
dered by them. As for the earth, out of it comet h 
bread, and under it is turned up as it were fire. The 
stones of it are the place of sapphires, and it hath 
dust of gold. Bread is another most necessary thing 
for man which the earth yields, and the industry and 
wisdom of man in cultivating and preparing it for use 
14* L 



1 62 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

are suggested. The precious stones that are turned up, 
or brought out, shine like fire. 

There is a path which no fowl knoweth, and which 
the vulture's eye hath not seen. The lion's whelps 
have not trodden it, nor the fierce lion passed by it. 
If any allusion is made here to that secret path by which 
men enter into the deep places of the earth in search 
of precious things, it is only to represent that spiritual 
path of true wisdom into which the children of wisdom 
are brought, but which is hidden from all earthly know- 
ledge. The manner in which it is spoken of, and the 
nature of the animals mentioned, show this. The fowls 
of the air seem to represent men of worldly religion ; 
the vulture is a ravenous bird with a very searching 
sight, and the lion goes about to devour. But with all 
his keenness of sight, which can glance over all the 
earth, the vulture cannot see this path ; and with all his 
strength, the lion cannot enter it. The prophet says of 
it: u No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast 
shall go up thereon ; it shall not be found there ; but 
the redeemed shall walk there." Isa. xxxv. 9. 

With all his power to search out earthly knowledge, 
man is incapable of finding this path. His power is 
further shown in the few following verses : He putteth 
forth his hand upon the rock; he overturneth the 
mountains by the roots. He cutteth out rivers a7?io?ig 
the rocks, and his eye seeth every precious thing. He 
bindeth the foods from overflowing, a?id the thing 
that is hid bringeth he forth to light. All this power 
man is very proud of, and regards himself as able to 
reach, by the exercise of his understanding, all spiritual 
treasures, as well as natural ; and so we have a world 
full of vain religion. But Job asks : But where shall 



CONCLUSION OF JOB'S PARABLE. 1 6, 



wisdom be found? and where is the place of under- 
standing? Man knoweth not the price thereof, neither 
is it found in the land of the living. The depth saith, 
It is not in me ; and the sea saith, It is not i?i me. 

Gold and precious things which the earth produces, 
and which man is able to find, are now mentioned ; 
but the price of wisdom is infinitely above them all. 
And the question is repeated, Whence, then, comet h 
wisdom ? and where is the place of understanding ? 
Seeing it is hid from the eyes of all living, and kept 
close from the fowls of the air. 

The search has been thorough, but wisdom is not 
found upon the earth, and is now positively declared 
to be hidden from the eyes of all living. In this pecu- 
liarly striking manner is the truth enforced which the 
Scriptures teach and which the saints have learned, 
that the knowledge of God and of salvation, the true 
wisdom, is not to be attained by man. 

Destruction and death say, We have heard the 
fame thereof with our ears. Here is the first intima- 
tion we have had of any knowledge of it, and a strange 
source we should think it from which to receive that 
knowledge. But the path that leads to wisdom passes 
through destruction and death. They lie between us 
and it. From that direction only can we hear of wis- 
dom. They have heard the fame thereof; for wisdom, 
in the person of our Saviour, has fought with and con- 
quered death, and caused destruction to come to a per- 
petual end. Ps. ix. 6. Our earthly hopes are destroyed, 
and we die to the world before we find the place of 
wisdom. All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge 
are hid with Christ in God. 

God understandeth the way thereof, and he know- 



164 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

eth the place thereof, for all knowledge in heaven and 
earth is declared to be his. When he made a decree 
for the raiii, and a way for the lightning of the 
thunder, then did he see it and declare it ; he pre- 
pared it, yea, and searched it out. And unto ma?i 
he said, Behold the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; 
and to depart fro7?i evil is understanding . 

Here is the way of salvation, in which that wisdom 
is manifested that is described in the eighth chapter of 
Proverbs. It is ancient, and its decrees were before the 
world was made. In Christ all his people were chosen 
before the foundation of the world, and when he is 
manifested to them in time it is as the wisdom of God. 
He is of God made unto them wisdom. 1 Cor. i. 30. 

It is the teaching of the Scriptures that no man can 
know God but by revelation — that by nature all men 
are inclined to evil and have no fear of God before 
their eyes ; the people of God in their natural condi- 
tion, as well as all others, being wise to do evil, but to 
do good they have no understanding (Jer. iv. 22), and 
that the Ethiopian will as soon and as easily change his 
skin and the leopard his spots as they will cease to do 
evil and learn to do well. When they shall fear the 
Lord and depart from evil, then they will have found 
wisdom and the place of understanding. But through- 
out this chapter it is strongly set forth that man knows 
not this wisdom, nor has power to see it. He is totally 
corrupt, and cannot do good in the sight of God. But 
the Lord knows the place of wisdom, and he is able to 
give a knowledge of it to man, and to give him a ca- 
pacity to receive that knowledge. It is all done under 
the new covenant. He puts his fear in their hearts. 
Jer. xxxii. 40. He turns them from darkness to light, 



CONCLUSION OF JOB'S PARABLE. 165 

from disobedience to the wisdom of the just, working 
in them both to will and to do of his own good 
pleasure. 

That path which no fowl knoweth and which no 
man has seen is the only way to depart from evil. We 
might think, at first glance, as the natural man would 
say, that to depart from evil is but to cease evil actions 
and as many of our evil thoughts as we can. But a 
moment's reflection, keeping in view the depraved con- 
dition of man, will show that there would be no de- 
parture from evil in changing our habits unless there 
should be a radical change of the heart. Being totally 
corrupt, a man can only depart from evil by departing 
from himself. Here is where the wisdom and under- 
standing of man fail, but the wisdom of God shows the 
way. Christ says, " I am the way." To depart from evil 
is to depart from ourselves to him ; and to do this he has 
given us an understanding. 1 John v. 20. He gives us a 
knowledge of himself by bringing us to himself. As his 
children we no longer hope in ourselves, but we hope 
in him and abide in him. He is our righteousness, 
our perfection. We live by the faith of him. The 
Pharisees go about to establish their own righteousness, 
and endeavor to save themselves by good works ; but 
they can never in this way depart from evil. They 
may become whited, but they are sepulchres still, full 
of corruption, as our Saviour said of them. There is 
no other way to depart from evil but the way our 
Saviour went, through death. We are " crucified with 
Christ;" we are "buried with him by baptism into 
death ;" we are " dead to the law" and "to the world ;" 
we are " risen with him through faith of the operation 
of God, who hath raised him from the dead ;" and now 



1 66 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

we " live not unto ourselves, but unto him ;" we walk 
in him in newness of life, " serving him in newness of 
the spirit and not in the oldness of the letter ( Rom. 
vii. 6) ; endeavoring to please him, not from a slavish 
fear, but from a heart of love. 

Here is a safe and a glorious way. He has borne our 
sins, and they cannot be charged against us. No harm, 
therefore, can come to us, while trusting in him. No 
lion can devour us. No eye can* see us as travelers in 
that way save those who are with us there. It is " the 
secret place of the Most High," and those who are in 
it " abide under the shadow of the Almighty." It is 
the King's highway of holiness. The way that seems 
right to a man is the way of death, but this is the way 
of life and peace and everlasting glory. 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

Moreover, Job continued his parable, and said, 
Oh that I were as in months fast, as in the days when 
God preserved me; when his candle shined upon my 
head, a?td by his light I walked through darkness; 
as I was in the days of my youth, when the secret of 
God was upon my taber?iacle ; when the Almighty 
was yet with ?ne, when my children were about me; 
when I washed my steps with butter, and the rock 
poured 7ne out rivers of oil; when I went out to the 
gate through the city, when I prepared ??iy seat in 
the street I 

This chapter continues with a description of Job's 
former prosperous and happy condition, of the homage 



CONCLUSION OF JOB'S PARABLE. 167 

paid to him by the great and noble of the earth, and 
of the blessings he received from the poor and perish- 
ing because of his kindness to them. This allusion to 
his past happiness is most pathetic and touching be- 
cause of his present darkness and sorrow. We are not 
to regard what he thus says of himself as at all over- 
stated, as though prompted by a spirit of self-praise, 
but as the plain truth. 

Looking at the Church under her three dispensations, 
I think we may see the first of these, the patriarchal 
dispensation, represented by the former condition of 
Job, which he is now remembering in his affliction. 
The people of God do not seem to have received re- 
bukes or chastisements then as they did under the legal 
dispensation. The Lord seemed in an especial manner 
to preserve them then, to grant them the light of his 
presence, and to speak with them not by prophets, but 
as friend to friend. Abraham was, like Job, the great- 
est of all the men of the East, as were also Isaac and 
Jacob. He had abundance of all possessions, being 
very rich in cattle and in silver and gold. Princes and 
nobles bowed themselves and paid him homage. Kings 
were overcome by him and destroyed. Like Job, he 
brake the jaws of the wicked, and plucked the spoil 
out of his teeth. The Lord thus speaks of him by the 
prophet : " Who raised up the righteous man from the 
East, called him to his foot, gave the nations before 
him, and made him rule over kings? He gave them as 
dust to his sword, and as the driven stubble to his bow. 
He pursued them, and passed safely ; even by the way 
that he had not gone with his feet." Isa. xli. 2, 3. I 
merely intimate this application. 

More particularly and more clearly do the first and 



1 68 THE TRIAL OF J Ob. 

second conditions of Job represent the early and latter 
conditions of Israel under the legal dispensation. At 
first the Lord preserved them. His candle shined upon 
them. He directed them safely by the pillar of fire, by 
Moses and Joshua and the Judges. Their abundance 
is well expressed by the words of Job : I washed my 
steps with butter, and the rock poured me out rivers 
of oil. Their enemies could not curse them, but must 
bless them altogether. Princes and nobles feared them, 
and nations either fled before them or bowed in humble 
submission. The Lord caused Balaam to say of them, 
in that early period of their history, " He hath not be- 
held iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverse- 
ness in Israel ;" righteousness, therefore, clothed them 
as a garment. This period is afterward referred to as 
one of exceeding joy : "Therefore I will allure her and 
bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably to 
her. And I will give her her vineyards from thence, 
and the valley of Achor for a door of hope ; and she 
shall sing there as in the days of her youth, as in the 
day when she came up out of the land of Egypt." Hos. 
ii. 14, 15. 

Though Israel was smitten from time to time for her 
transgressions, the duration of her chastisement would 
be brief. The Lord continued to preserve her as a na- 
tion, and her prosperity and greatness continued increas- 
ing steadily until they reached their culmination in the 
exceeding glory of Solomon's reign. From that time 
the Lord withdrew his preserving care, her glory was 
taken away, the crown fell from her head, and she was 
led into captivity and great affliction. While in this 
sad state there was great mourning. The prophets 
mournfully allude to the former glory of Zion, or the 



CONCLUSION OF JOB'S PARABLE. 169 

people of God, as Job does to his former prosperity : 
" How doth the city sit solitary that was full of people ! 
How is she become as a widow ! She that was great 
among the nations and princess among the provinces, 
how is she become tributary!" Lam. i. 1. 

So in all the prophets and the Psalms we find a be- 
wailing of past happiness gone ; the children of the 
captivity weeping when they remember Zion ; Rachel 
mourning for her children ; the people of the Most High 
deprecating his anger and shrinking under the stroke 
of his hand ; while yet words of comfort are heard by 
them in this wilderness, and assurances that God will 
" turn their captivity," and cause their future state far 
to exceed their former in glory, as was the case with 
Job. It is the true Israelites, the elect of God among 
that people, that Job's parable here presents. Like 
him, they mourned the decay of former greatness and 
the loss of their comforts, caused by the withdrawal of 
God's face from them, yet held fast their integrity, 
humbly received the word of God by the prophets, 
which their brethren according to the flesh spurned, 
were assured that their Redeemer lived, and looked 
with steady hope and unwavering faith to the time 
when he should stand upon the earth and restore them. 

In representing the Church, Job presents, as we have 
shown, the experience of each member. Every Chris- 
tian can see to some extent an application of these ex- 
pressions to himself, when, in present darkness, he has 
looked back to former seasons of joy and comfort when 
the secret of God was upon his tabernacle. When 
we are in spiritual prosperity we realize the exaltation 
spiritually that is here figuratively described. The 
Lord is our light and our joy ; we walk upon high 

15 



1 70 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

places, and we speak with a wisdom and authority far 
above that of kings and nobles, for we speak the word 
of God. The young men saw me and hid themselves, 
and the aged arose and stood up. The pri?ices re- 
frained talking, and laid their hand upon their 
mouth. The nobles held their peace, and their tongue 
cleaved to the roof of their mouth. So earthly wis- 
dom fails before those who " speak the wisdom of God," 
and the mouths of gainsayers are stopped. This is not 
an effect fully seen by the natural eye, but it is fully 
realized by the believer in his hour of spiritual triumph 
and joy. Then our words are words of comfort to the 
poor and oppressed — the convicted sinner, who is 
" ready to perish." The blessing of him that was 
ready to perish came upon me, and I caused the 
widow's heart to sing for joy. All this was literally 
true of Job, and so he could speak as a type of the 
Church in this respect. 

It is only when our faith is clear and our hearts filled 
with light and joy that we can triumph in the right- 
eousness and wisdom of God. I put o?t righteousness, 
and it clothed ?7ie; my judg?nent was as a robe and a 
diadem. I was eyes to the blind, and feet was I to 
the lame. I was a father to the poor, and the cause 
which I knew not I searched out. Our Saviour was 
as is here described while on the earth, and in his truth 
he gives still the same help. His followers desire to 
seek out the spiritually lame and blind and minister to 
them, as they do to those who are temporally poor. 
The words of truth which they speak have a power to 
search out and manifest the poor of the kingdom, the 
quickened souls who feel their poverty and helplessness. 

Then I said, I shall die in my nest, and I shall 



CONCLUSION OF JOB'S PARABLE. 171 

multiply my days as the sand. So when comfortable 
in the land of Canaan the children of God looked to 
his promise and supposed they should dwell there for 
ever. So we, in our days of gladness, have felt as 
though this comfort must continue, and as though the 
days of our mourning were ended. How delightful it 
was ! My root was spread out by the waters, and the 
dew lay all night upon my branch. Thus, as " trees 
of righteousness" abundantly watered by the " river 
of God's pleasures," and refreshed with his doctrine that 
distills like the dew, we had no further need. My glory 
was fresh in me, and my bow was renewed in my 
hand. 

But, alas ! when God in infinite wisdom and good- 
ness, for the trial of our faith, " holdeth back the face 
of his throne, and spreadeth his cloud upon it," how 
soon does our power fade away and the glory fall from 
our head ! Then we see where our strength was, being 
left in our own weakness, and in the condition described 
at the close of the next chapter. 



CHAPTER XXX. 

But now they that are younger than I have me in 
derision, whose fathers I would have disdained to 
have set with the dogs of my flock. 

While Job speaks thus of those who now oppose 
him, describing their former inferior and contemptible 
condition, he at the same time presents in this figurative 
manner the relative conditions of the people of God 
and the sons of Belial, the real degradation of those 



I7 2 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

who love false doctrine and hate the truth, and the 
recognition of this degradation by the saints when they 
enjoy the light and comfort of the Spirit. 

Error is younger than truth, and its devotees are so 
represented here. The truth is as old as the throne of 
God, and was given to his people from the beginning, 
causing them to praise and honor him ; and the essence 
of this truth is, that God is an unchangeable Sovereign, 
and receives counsel or help from none. From the 
wicked hearts of men, where the prince of darkness 
works, rises the false doctrine that man has power to 
exalt himself and a right to demand of God a recogni- 
tion of his good works. Cain made this demand at the 
first, and those who " go in the way of Cain" have 
made it ever since ; and as God answered him, so will 
he answer them. These are proud and vain of their 
fancied strength, but the saint holds them in contempt : 
Tea, whereto might the strength of their hands proflt 
me, in whom old age was perished? For want and 
famine they were solitary; fleeing into the wilder- 
ness in former time desolate and waste — who cut 
up mallows by the bushes and juniper roots for their 
meat. 

In thus describing the beggarly condition of the 
fathers of those who now vaunt themselves against him, 
he most clearly presents the earthly habitation and mis- 
erable condition of those who falsely exalt themselves 
spiritually, as viewed by the saints from their true ex- 
altation in the mountain of the Lord's house. In their 
seasons of exaltation they see the dwelling-place of the 
wicked, in which they take such pride, to be but a wil- 
derness, desolate and waste. Here their fathers dug 
out of the earth the food upon which these children 






CONCLUSION OF JOB'S PARABLE. 173 

were reared, feeding them with earthly and not heav- 
enly food, or doctrine. But the saints come of a royal 
line, and are nurtured upon royal fare. Job dwells 
upon the low and groveling condition and character of 
those from whom these proud men have sprung. They 
were driven forth from among men — the men of God 
— {they cried after them as after a thief) ; to dwell 
in the cliffs of the valleys, in the caves of the earth 
and in the rocks. The men of God, the inhabitants 
of Zion, will have no fellowship with these children 
of fools and base men, viler than the earth. 

But now that darkness and affliction have come, now 
that the Lord has made us feel the great weakness of 
our strength and the weight of our natural depravity, 
they come with their taunts and derision. And now 
am I their song ; yea, I am their byword. They 
abhor me, they fee far from me, and spare not to spit 
in my face. Because he hath loosed my cord and af- 
flicted me, they also have let loose the bridle before 
me. The same complaint is made by the Psalmist and 
the prophets, speaking for Zion. Ps. xliv. 13-18 ; lxix. 
12, 26 ; Lam. iii. 14, 63. 

Upon my right hand rise the youth; they push 
away my feet, and raise up against me the ways of 
their destruction. 

These teachers of false doctrine strive to push off the 
feet of the saints from the Rock. It is of their doctrine 
the wise man speaks when he says, " There is a way 
that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof 
are the ways of death." These ways of their destruc- 
tion they raise up against the saints in their affliction, 
and they seem greatly to mar their path and set forward 
their calamity. They ca?7ie upon me as a wide break- 
15 * 



174 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

ing-in of waters ; in the desolation they rolled them- 
selves upon me. It is only when we are in darkness 
that they can thus afflict. When terrors are turned 
upon us, then they pursue our soul as the wind, and 
our welfare passeth away as a cloud. It was when 
our Saviour's soul was "exceeding sorrowful, even unto 
death," that he said, " This is your hour, and the power 
of darkness." They persecute them whom God has 
wounded. When it is light with us and faith triumphs 
they cannot afflict our souls. 

Through the remainder of this chapter we follow Job 
in bitter complaints of God's afflicting hand, like those 
he has before given expression to. If we condemn his 
strong expressions, we must remember that David and 
Jeremiah and other inspired writers have left on record 
similar complaints, and fully as strong ; and it has been 
my desire to show that Job but expresses feelings that 
are common to the saints in like trouble and peculiar 
to them, and that the rebukes of the Lord by Elihu and 
out of the whirlwind are the only ones that can be given 
for them. 

His words are deeply touching, even to the natural 
mind ; but it is only when we are heavily burdened 
under a sense of our infirmities and unworthiness that 
we can truly appreciate the sorrowful burden of his 
speech. We remember how kindly we felt toward all, 
how we sympathized with the afflicted, how full of love 
and holy desires we were ; and now why have we been 
left to such desolation of soul, such condemnation? 
Did not I weep for him that was in trouble? Was 
not my soul grieved for the poor ? When I looked for 
good, then evil came upon me, and whe?i I waited for 
light, then came darkness. And all this affliction he 



CONCLUSION OF JOB'S PARABLE. 175 

ascribes to the hand of God, who does not hear him, 
who has become cruel to him, whose strong hand op- 
poses him. Such feelings are within us under the like 
circumstances, yet we may notice that we would hardly 
dare to speak them, feeling that they are wrong — un- 
doubtedly receiving the spiritual rebuke of the Lord for 
them. Jeremiah complains, " Thou hast covered thy- 
self with a cloud, that our prayer should not pass 
through." Lam. iii. 44. David declares, like Job, that 
God has afflicted his people, though they have not 
turned from him : "All this is come upon us ; yet have 
we not forgotten thee, neither have we dealt falsely in 
thy covenant. Our heart is not turned back, neither 
have our steps declined from thy way ; though thou 
hast sore broken us in the place of dragons, and cov- 
ered us with the shadow of death." Ps. xliv. 17-19: 

We go mourning without the sun. We acknow- 
ledge in the congregation of the righteous how unwor- 
thy we are to be with them. Whereas in former times 
we could say, " I am a companion of all them that fear 
thee," now we declare ourselves worthy only of com- 
panionship with the vilest, though we abhor them. 
We cannot sing the Lord's song in this strange land of 
affliction, but, like the children of the captivity, hang 
our harps upon the willows, for they are tuned only to 
mourning. I stood up, and I cried in the congrega 
tion. I am a brother to dragons and a companion to 
owls. My skin is black upon me, and my bones are 
burned with heat. My harp also is turned to mourn- 
ing, and my organ into the voice of them that weep. 



176 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

This chapter contains specific denials of the iniqui 
ties that have been charged against him ; and in each 
of these assertions of his rectitude there is spiritual 
instruction concerning the holiness of the Church, 
the purity of the new man, in thought and word and 
deed. The Holy Spirit in the saints causes them to hate 
all injustice and falsehood and hypocrisy. It causes 
them, therefore, freely to acknowledge before God the 
sinfulness of the flesh. Knowing their strong desires 
after holiness, and their humility of soul and sorrow for 
sin, their desire is that God would answer them. They 
are willing to abide his answer, but it is only because 
they know by faith that their Redeemer liveth. If their 
adversary also would write a book, it would not be to 
their condemnation. Let him make a record of every 
fault, of every sin, yet he would bring only false accu- 
sations ; for all those sins are washed away by the Re- 
deemer's blood. And while the enemy notes the wan- 
derings of the flesh, he does not record the hatred of 
sin, the contrition, the hungering after righteousness 
that is in their heart, nor the belief in God which is 
counted unto them for righteousness. All that the en- 
emy, " the accuser of the brethren," could write against 
them would but more fully show the greatness of their 
Saviour's work in their redemption and the wonders 
of his love, and so would be as a crown unto them. 

We will now pass from this. And so we come to 
the conclusion of Job's words in this great controversy 
We shall hear from him again, but in a different strain. 



>'-** 



XVIII. 

ELIHU'S ANSWER. 



CHAPTER XXXII. 

So these three men ceased to answer Job, because 
he was righteous in his own eyes. Then was kindled 
the wrath of Elihu, the son of Barachel the Buzite, 
of the kindred of Ram : against fob was his wrath 
kindled, because he justified hi?nself rather than 
God; also against his three friends was his wrath 
kindled, because they had found no answer, and yet 
had condemned fob. 

Here is a new character. He appears unannounced, 
delivers his message, and is heard of no more. He ap- 
pears to have been a listener to all that has been said, 
)'et by neither Job, nor his friends, nor by the inspired 
writer of the book has any notice been taken of him, 
nor is his speech alluded to afterward. 

I regard him as representing the gospel ministry, and 
as having in this discourse made full proof of his min- 
istry, according to the direction of Paul, by preaching 
the word, rebuking, reproving, exhorting, with all 
long-sufYering and doctrine. 2 Tim. iv. 2, 5. 

The meaning of his name, Elihu, is, He is my God 
himself; that of his father's name, Barachel, Who bows 
before God ; and Ram, of whose kindred he was, sig- 

M 177 



178 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

nifies, Elevated, sublime. As the names used in Scrip- 
ture have a signification appropriate to the character 
of those who bear them, we may take from the meaning 
of these names an evidence that Elihu was a true ser- 
vant of God. 

I will mention here a few evidences drawn from 
what he says of himself in this chapter : 

1 st. He was younger than the others, which must be 
the case if he is intended to represent the gospel minis- 
try. The system of works is older than that of grace in 
the order of time, although, as we have said, truth is 
older than error essentially. " That was not first which 
was spiritual, but that which was natural, and after- 
ward that which is spiritual. " 1 Cor. xv. 46. The legal 
dispensation preceded the gospel. 

2d. He shows personal humility in waiting for the 
others to speak, and fearing to speak himself hitherto 
because of his youth. He said, I am young, and ye 
are very old; wherefore I was afraid, and durst not 
show you mine opinion. 

3d. He does not speak because he lacks a high regard 
naturally for the persons of the others. He has lis- 
tened carefully and respectfully to their words, and has 
weighed them well. But it is clear that they do not 
understand the truth, and their words are without true 
wisdom. And now his own mind is filled up, and 
swells with the knowledge of the truth. Yet he would 
that another might speak this glorious doctrine, for he 
does not feel worthy. I said, Days should speak and 
multitude of years should teach wisdom. So the 
called servant always feels himself unworthy and 
shrinks from so great a work, and regards some other 
as more fit and worthy to be sent. So Moses and 



ELI HITS ANSWER. 179 

Isaiah and Jeremiah and Amos would have drawn 
back, considering themselves too weak and young, and 
altogether unfit for the sublime work of carrying God's 
message. And so Paul expresses his self-depreciating 
feeling and that of all who are called to the work. But 
the Lord will have his strength made perfect in weak- 
ness, and places the gospel "treasure in earthen vessels 
that the excellency of the power may be of God and 
not of us." 

4th. We may also notice here a reason for the fact 
that Elihu is not made mention of. The importance 
is attached not to himself, but to the word which he 
preaches. 

5th. Elihu gives another evidence of his character as 
representing the ministers of God by ascribing his 
knowledge to the inspiration of God, instead of taking 
the credit to himself of having obtained it by his own 
power. But there is a spirit in man, and the inspi- 
ration of the Almighty giveth them understanding. 

6th. It is not pride or vanity that causes Elihu to 
speak, but simply the wonderful and mysterious power 
of the truth working within him, and begetting a desire 
to speak as imperious as that of a thirsty man to drink. 
The truth must be spoken and vindicated, and in the 
absorbing contemplation of it he loses sight of himself 
and forgets his fear. He waits in vain for another to 
speak. When I had waited {for they spake not, but 
stood still and answered no more), I said, I will an- 
swer also my part, I also will show mine opinion. 
For I am full of matter ; the spirit within me con- 
straineth me. Behold, my belly is as wine which 
hath no vent; it is ready to burst like new bottles. I 
will speak, that I may be refreshed ; I will open my 



180 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

lips and answer. So Jeremiah says : " But his word 
was in my heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, 
and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay." 
Jer. xx. 9. 

7th. Elihu knew not to give flattering titles to man. 
He had nothing to do with any man but to preach to 
him the word of God, which levels all distinctions 
among men and ascribes righteousness alone to God. 1 
Thess. ii. 4, 5. 

Other evidences that Elihu represents the gospel min- 
istry will continually appear, but the clearest will be 
seen in the character of what he preaches. 

What he says of the three friends sustains the view 
we have taken throughout the consideration of their 
speeches — that they spake falsely and ignorantly : They 
had found no answer, and yet had condemned yob. 
Tea, I atte?zded unto you, and behold, there was none 
of you that convinced yob or that answered his words. 
They had condemned him upon false grounds. He 
was to be reproved, but not for anything that they could 
see. Lest ye should say, We have found out wisdom: 
God thrusteth him down, not 711 an. It was not even 
Elihu as a man that could administer reproof, but as a 
servant of God, as in God's stead. Now he hath not 
directed his words against me, neither will I answer 
him with your speeches. We shall see that Elihu does 
not answer with their speeches as we proceed to con- 
sider his sermon. 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 



Wherefore, yob, I pray thee hear my speeches 
and hearken to all my words. Thus, as a servant of 



ELIHU' S ANSWER. 181 

God, he calls with assurance for the attention of Job to 
what he shall say ; for poor and ignorant as he feels in 
himself, he has no doubt of the excellency of the truth 
given him to preach, nor of the uprightness with which 
he shall speak it. My words shall be of the upright- 
ness of my heart, and my lips shall utter knowledge 
clearly. 

Job has desired that God would appear to him dis- 
robed of the awful terrors of his majesty, so that he 
might reason with him. His wish is now gratified. 
Here is one whom the Spirit of God hath made and 
the breath of the Almighty hath given life — a crea- 
ture of God, like Job. He therefore calls Job to answer 
if he can. Behold, I am according to thy wish in 
God's stead; I also am formed out of the clay. Be- 
hold, my terror shall not make thee afraid, neither 
shall my hand be heavy upon thee. We cannot but 
see an intimation here of the great favor that it is to us 
in our weakness to have the word ministered to us by 
brethren like ourselves ; and from this to see a little of 
the wonderful goodness of God to his tempted children, 
that they have a Saviour and Advocate who knows all 
their weakness and infirmities, having been tempted in 
all points like as they are, yet without sin. But though 
Elihu be of clay, he cannot speak but the words of God. 
To the servant of God he has said, " Preach the preach- 
ing that I shall bid thee." Job therefore cannot enter 
into judgment or argument with him to answer his 
words, but only to humbly acknowledge them. Peter 
said to Cornelius, " Rise up, for I also am a man ;" yet 
he was to speak the unchangeable and unanswerable 
words of God. 

We now come to the specific objections of Elihu 
16 



1 82 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

against Job : Surely thou hast spoken in mine hear- 
ing, and I have heard the voice of ' thy words, saying, 
I am clean without transgression; I am innocent; 
neither is there iniquity in me. Behold, he ji?ideth 
occasions against me, he counteth me for his enemy. 
He putteth my feet in the stocks, he marketh all my 
paths. 

Now we will observe, first, that Elihu has made a fair 
statement of what Job has said. His friends seldom 
did so, for they could not understand his experience, and 
so whenever they deviated from his express words they 
misrepresented him. For instance, Zophar charged 
him with saying, I am clean in thine eyes (xi. 4) ; but 
this was more than Job had said. He has continually 
acknowledged in words and in the spirit of his speech 
that in the eyes of God he is a sinner (vii. 20). Yet he 
has contended that he was cleatz without transgression, 
as Elihu says. And this was true in any sense in which 
the eyes of man could mark him, for he was free from 
crime and all evil conduct. He was free also in the 
eye of the law, for he was a perfect and upright man. 
But his perfection was in a Redeemer, and his ability 
to walk uprightly and eschew evil was through grace 
in that Redeemer. In himself he was weak and cor- 
rupt by nature, and this the Lord was now fully causing 
him to realize. 

We will next observe carefully th6 nature of Elihu's 
answer to these words of Job, and we shall see that it 
differs essentially from the answers of his three friends, 
as he has said that he would not answer him with 
their speeches. They have uniformly answered him by 
denying the truth of his declarations concerning his 
own innocency, and by multiplying charges of wicked- 



ELIHU' S ANSWER. 183 

ness against him. But Elihu does not contradict him, 
nor does he here or elsewhere bring against him one 
such charge as they have. But he reproves him for 
murmuring against God and complaining against his 
dealings with him. He says, Behold in this thou art 
not just; not that he has not spoken truly concerning 
the cleanness of his hands from evil nor concerning the 
heaviness of God's hand upon him, but that he is not 
just or right in thus complaining. That this is his 
meaning the following words clearly show : I will an- 
swer thee — how? By telling him that he is guilty, and 
that God is only punishing him for his evil deeds ? No ; 
nothing of the kind. I will answer thee that God is 
greater than man. Why dost thou strive against 
him ? for he giveth not accotint of any of his matters. 
He does not deal with men according to man's judg- 
ment. His ways are higher than ours as the heavens 
are higher than the earth. He gives comfort or afflic- 
tion as he will, and always in infinite wisdom, and Job 
is reproved for striving against him. And by the same 
words, let us remember, David and Jeremiah and all 
the saints are reproved. They are not to complain, but 
humble themselves under the mighty hand of God. 

Concerning these words of Job that are here quoted, 
we have seen heretofore how they express the experi- 
ence of the saints. But we must remember that in our 
experience we are continually feeling the rebukes and 
reproofs of God within us, such as Elihu gives. Let us 
now consider Job's case a little further. Suppose one 
to be perfect in the sight of men, so that none, upon the 
most careful scrutiny, could find cause for complaint ; yet 
such a one in the sight of God feels himself, as he is by 
nature, a miserable sinner, and groans, being burdened. 



184 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

Let him, however, be accused of wicked acts by those 
who know nothing by experience of man's condition, 
and we can easily see how indignantly he would repel 
their false accusations. And he would tell them, as 
Job did, that God multiplieth his wounds without cause 
— such cause as they can see. In their sight he is not a 
sinner. But in the sight of God he is depraved totally, 
except as he is graciously regarded through a Saviour ; 
and the gospel always finds the one to whom it comes 
a poor, helpless sinner ; to such only is it sent. Elihu, 
therefore, takes Job upon a plane far above the sight or 
understanding of his three friends, giving him reproofs 
that they cannot hear, for that in him which they have 
not seen. 

From the fourteenth to the thirtieth verses of this 
chapter there is a clear and full statement of the way 
in which God deals with his people, and here we shall 
find Job's experience, as he has related it at large, most 
fully comprehended. In this we see the most conclu- 
sive evidence that Elihu is a gospel teacher. All false 
teachers, like the three friends of Job, spend their time 
in telling how much man can and ought to do in order 
to win God's favor ; but the true servant of God tells 
what God does for man in bringing him from darkness 
to light. He preaches Christian experience in preach- 
ing the gospel, so that the poor sinner, groaning in an- 
guish, may see the hand of God in his afflicting know- 
ledge of his depravity. 

For God speaketh once, yea, twice, yet man per- 
ceiveth it not. The child Samuel was called three 
times before he knew that it was God who spoke to 
him. So it seems to be with the Lord's people when 
they are called. They are first made to know them- 



ELIHU'S ANSWER. 185 

selves as sinners and to experience the suffering de- 
scribed here, yet do not perceive the voice of God in 
this teaching. In this he speaks once through the law. 
He speaks again through the gospel, revealing the way 
of salvation through the Redeemer ; but we have to be 
instructed that this also is the voice of God, and that 
the peace we experience is the peace of God. So Peter 
knew that Christ was the Son of God, but seems not to 
have known, until our Saviour told him, that it was 
God who had revealed it unto him, and that he was 
blessed in having that knowledge. We are thus, prob- 
ably, to understand how God speaks once, yea, twice. 
The Psalmist says, " God hath spoken once ; twice 
have I heard this ; that power belongeth unto God." 
Ps. lxii. 11. In learning that we are justly-condemned 
sinners, we learn that power belongeth unto God, as he 
gave an evidence of that power from Sinai — that no 
man hath power to save. In the gospel we hear also 
that power belongeth unto God, for it is " the power 
of God unto salvation." In both cases it is God who 
speaks, but we do not perceive it until expressly told. 
When we learn that God has been speaking to our 
souls, then we have " full assurance of hope." 

In a dream, in the vision of the night, when deep 
sleep falleth upon man, in slumber ings upon the bed, 
then he openeth the ears of men and sealeth their in- 
struction. Man can reach us with his instruction only 
when we are awake ; and then we may resist his power 
as a teacher by turning away our eyes, closing our ears 
and burying our minds in other subjects. But God is 
not so limited. He can reach us when he will, and no 
slumber is so deep as to shut our souls away from the 
searching power of his voice. When trouble, on ac- 
16* 



1 86 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

count of sin, begins to come upon us we try to drive it 
away, for it is not pleasant to feel guilty ; and we may 
seem to do so for a while by engrossing our minds in 
the cares of business or intoxicating them with the 
pleasures of the world. But in sleep we have no con- 
trol of our minds. We cannot choose what shall be 
our dreams ; and our true character will often be pre- 
sented to us then. Often in a dream we stand before 
ourselves disrobed of all our fancied goodness, in the 
hideous deformity of our depraved and deceitful nature, 
receiving our own abhorrence and condemnation. Thus 
our ears are opened to hear instruction concerning our- 
selves, and we cannot close them. Like Job, we can 
say, " Thou scarest me through dreams, and terrifiest 
me through visions." 

We may try again and again to think ourselves good 
when the light of day is about us and we are in the 
company of those who esteem and commend us, and 
when we think of our various virtues and our careful 
avoidance of the evil ways of many. But night closes 
about us again, and deep sleep shuts away our friends 
and the things of the world, leaving us utterly alone ; 
and then again comes forth to our view what was hid- 
den in the mysterious recesses of our nature, a capacity 
for all evil in action, and we can deny no charge that is 
brought against us in our dreams ; but like Joseph's 
brethren, when accused of being spies, we can only say 
within ourselves, Verily, we were guilty in this or that 
thing that is now brought to our remembrance. If we 
have not actually done this or that wrong act, yet we 
have manifested the same evil nature in some other act 
or wish, so that we are speechless before God. 

In the Scriptures we find that God often speaks to 



ELIHU'S ANSWER. 187 

men in a dream ; and this, as well as this declaration 
of Elihu, may represent his power at will to shut away 
the world from our minds as effectually as though deep 
sleep had fallen upon us, leaving us alone with him. 
When he tells us we are sinners, it is night with us, and 
worldly interests fade away. The voice of the Lord 
silences other voices ; and, like Daniel, when we hear 
the voice of his words we are in a deep sleep on our 
faces toward the ground. Dan. viii. 18 ; x. 9. 

The Lord seals instruction. This no earthly teacher 
can ever do. Though they begin with the plastic 
minds of children, they cannot seal instruction so that 
it cannot be forgotten. How vain, therefore, is their 
profession of power to teach the knowledge of God. 
What God teaches is sealed to our knowledge for 
ever. 

That he may withdraw man from his purpose, and 
hide pride from man. Here is the object and the ef- 
fect of this painful lesson which God gives us concern- 
ing our depravity. He has a purpose of his own concern- 
ing all the children of promise, " which he purposed 
in himself," that they should be holy and without blame 
before him in love ; and to prepare them for himself, 
and to fulfill his purpose in them, he thus withdraws 
them from their own purposes, which are worldly, and 
destroys all their pride. 

He keepeth back his soul from the pit, and his life 
from perishing by the sword. Under the heavy bur- 
den of our sins, and of the just condemnation of God's 
holy law, destruction seems certain and near at hand ; 
and often death appears preferable to this anguish. 
Sometimes thoughts of self-destruction may occur, but 
we are kept from their power. Again, we may go 



1 88 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

trembling with fear that our life will be a prey, know- 
ing that we do not deserve to keep it. But God, who 
controls all the powers of destruction, is leading us, 
so that while we shall see how well we deserve death 
and the pit, we shall be kept from perishing. 

He is chastened also with pain upon his bed, and 
the multitude of his bones with strong pain. We see 
how closely he follows the experience of Job in thus 
delineating the experience of God's people ; for he has 
complained that instead of finding relief upon his bed, 
he was so full of tossings to and fro that he longed for 
the night to be gone. Elihu shows him that this being 
the working of God with him, as even Job knew and 
declared, he had no reason to complain. Though God 
appears to count him for his enemy, setting a watch 
upon him so that no sin shall be hidden, and heavily 
afflicting him, yet he has no right to complain. We 
observe again that Elihu has not denied the truth of 
Job's words which he repeated, but reproves him for 
the complaint. The most perfect Christian that ever 
lived, and the one most free from transgression, can yet 
appropriate to himself under all his sufferings the ques- 
tion of the prophet: "Wherefore doth a living man 
complain, a man for the punishment for his sins?" Lam. 
iii. 39. 

How strong are the expressions here used to describe 
the painful sense of sin ! But there is a tender intima- 
tion of the everlasting love of God that lies back of all 
this suffering, in the use of the word " chasten ;" for 
" whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth." 

So that his life abhorreth bread, and his soul 
dainty meat. We once relished the worldly doctrine 
with which men fed us, and swallowed greedily the 



ELIHU'S ANSWER. 189 

dainty meats of flattering and delusive philosophy. 
But now we turn from them with abhorrence, for they 
not only cannot satisfy our hunger, but they sicken our 
souls. " The Lord called for a famine upon the land : 
he brake the whole staff of bread" ( Ps. cv. 16), and 
thus caused the brethren of Joseph to go to him for 
bread. So we are brought hungering and fainting to 
our spiritual Joseph for the bread of, life. 

His flesh is consumed away that it cannot be seen; 
and his bones that were not seen, stick out. Thus is 
represented the loss of all hope in ourselves and of all 
self-esteem. It is through such an experience that we 
come to " have no confidence in the flesh." Under this 
heavy suffering, and the loss of appetite for earthly 
bread, the flesh consumes away. We did not before 
know that we could have suffered so. The bones that 
were not seen, stick out. Our meagre condition, which 
had been hidden from our view by our vain self-confi- 
dence, as the bones are hidden by the flesh, now fully 
appears. We are " ready to perish." 

Tea, his soul draweth near to the grave, and his 
life to the destroyers. The terrible scene seems about 
to close, and the poor, justly-condemned sinner waits 
the moment when he shall be swept away by the 
wrath of a righteously indignant God into everlasting 
darkness. 

But what is this that comes dawning upon us here ? 
What new and wonderful light breaks through the 
darkness? What is this sweet and peaceful rest that 
folds about the weary spirit, while a great love heaves 
through the very being, melting the poor, broken heart 
into a fountain of thankfulness? This is the Sun of 
Righteousness arising with healing in his wings. Right 



190 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

here, in this extremity of trouble and darkness, the new 
and living way of salvation opens to our view, and the 
love of God appears, filling us with rapturous amaze- 
ment. 

If there be a messenger with him, an interpreter, 
one among a thousand, to show unto man his upright- 
ness, then he is gracious unto him, and saith, De- 
liver him from going down to the pit : I have found 
a ransom. Here is the dawning of gospel light. 
This messenger is Jesus, the "Messenger of the cove- 
nant" (Mai. iii. 1), the interpreter of God's will and 
of his dealings with men, " the chiefest among ten 
thousand." Each of his ministers is as 07ie among a 
thousa?zd. " How beautiful upon the mountains are 
the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publish- 
eth peace, that bringeth good tidings of good, that 
publisheth salvation !" Isa. Iii. 7 ; Rom. x. 15. 

Observe the peculiar doctrine of the gospel here, so 
clearly different from the doctrines of men. Instead 
of saying, as Job's friends did, that this poor, afflicted 
man of whom he is speaking, ought now to acquaint 
himself with God and be at peace, he makes his deliv- 
erance depend upon something that is entirely beyond 
his control — something in the bringing about of which 
he has no hand whatever, which he cannot affect one 
way or the other. He does not say that God will be 
gracious to him if he will do something pleasing in his 
sight — perform some condition. This would be turning 
aside the meaning of all that he has related. The very 
purpose of the trials that have been brought upon him 
is to show him that he can do nothing meritorious in 
God's sight. And it is because he knows this that his 
soul draweth near to the grave. But he makes his de- 



ELIHU'S ANSWER. 191 

liverance depend entirely upon the will of God in send- 
ing to him a messenger. 

He simply shows here at what stage in our experi- 
ence the gospel light appears, and the wonderful effect 
of it. We need not be told that we are helpless, de- 
praved, destitute of righteousness and destitute of power 
to get any, for all this we have painfully learned. But 
when the messenger from God shows us, by the inter- 
pretation of his word, that all men are in that condi- 
tion, and that God's people alone become conscious of 
it in this life, then we hear with interest. And when 
he presents Christ as the uprightness of the poor and 
sinful, as the Lord our righteousness, thus showing 
unto man his only uprightness in a blessed Redeemer, 
then the grace of God appears ; and, as the light of 
that blessed truth enters our souls, the chains of dark- 
ness and of fear are broken and fall away, and we are 
delivered. Christ is the glorious ransom. We are not 
delivered for what we have done, but for what he has 
done. We knew nothing of this salvation, and there- 
fore could not even have asked for it. The sinner 
never perceives the possibility of being saved upon any 
other principle than that of becoming worthy, nor 
thinks of that worthiness being in another, until the 
Lord brings the knowledge of that way to him in his 
own salvation. No worldly teacher ever speaks of that 
way, no matter how much he may talk about Jesus. 
The Lord sends the knowledge by his own special 
Messenger to each redeemed soul, and then arise songs 
of joy and praise, and shouts of victory to the God of 
salvation. 

His flesh shall be fresher than a child 's; he shall 
return to the days of his youth. He is a child in the 



192 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

kingdom of God, and the fresh and innocent pleasures 
of natural childhood do but faintly represent the divine 
enjoyments that are ever new and fresh and holy in the 
presence of God. " In his presence is fullness of joy, 
and at his right hand there are pleasures for evermore." 

He shall pray unto God, and he will be favorable 
unto him ; and he shall see his face with joy, for he 
will render unto man his righteousness. Here are 
the blessings of gospel privileges — the privilege of 
prayer in the name of the Saviour ; the blessing of com- 
munion with God, whose righteousness is rendered unto 
his people through his Son. Here is " the blessedness 
of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness 
without works." Rom. iv. 6. 

He looketh upon men, and if any say, I have sinned 
and perverted that which was right and it profited 
me not, he will deliver his soul from going into the 
pit, and his life shall see the light. 

Here begin the exhortations to repentance and the 
assurances of forgiveness through the Saviour to those 
who confess their sins. These are only to those who 
have been brought under the gospel. It is to the saints 
and of the saints that the Apostle John speaks when he 
gives the same blessed assurance that Elihu does here : 
" If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive 
us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 
1 John i. 9. This confession is not merely an acknow- 
ledgment with the lips, but consists in such a sore know- 
ledge of his sins as has been heretofore described. 

Lo, all these things worketh God oftentimes with 
man, to bring back his soul from the pit, to be enlight- 
ened with the light of the living. Here is the con- 
clusion of this complete gospel sermon, declaring the 



ELIHU'S ANSWER. 193 

salvation of God and showing how it is wrought in the 
heart ; following the sinner from the darkness of nature, 
when God first begins the work, to its performance, 
when he comes in the liberty of Jesus Christ. Phil. i. 6. 
Not a word of man's work, or power to work, in the 
whole of it. Not a word even about repentance and 
confession until after the gospel light has appeared, and 
then only as manifestations of God's gracious work in 
the heart. For repentance, like all other blessings, is 
the gift of Jesus Christ. Acts v. 31. 

Mark well, O Job, hearken unto me ; hold thy 
peace and I will speak. If thou hast anything to 
say, answer me ; speak, for I desire to justify thee. 
If not, hearken unto me; hold thy peace, and I shall 
teach thee wisdom. 

The gospel ministry, whether it bring reproof or in- 
struction in righteousness, will justify the children of 
wisdom in teaching them. 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 

We are regarding Job as representing the Church, 
all imperfect in herself, and black " as the tents of Ke- 
dar," but perfect in Christ, and white " as the curtains 
of Solomon." Song Sol. i. 5. He receives justly, 
therefore, through the administration of the word by 
Elihu, all the reproofs that the various members of the 
Church require. And while we find Paul administer- 
ing rebukes and admonitions to those whom he ad- 
dresses as " holy brethren," we need not wonder to find 
them here. Did we not find them, we should conclude 
we were wrong in supposing the Church to be typified. 
17 N 



194 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

It is to be continually observed that Elihu brings no 
such charge against Job as his friends have. He finds 
no fault with his doctrine, neither does he accuse him 
with falsehood, hypocrisy or any kind of wickedness. 
His only objection is against Job's expressions, against 
his complaints and murmurings. While these, as we 
have formerly shown, are truthful expressions of his 
burdened soul, and so not to be seen by worldly wisdom 
as sinful, yet as between him and God they are rebel- 
lion — the rebellious expressions of his old, depraved na- 
ture which is being humbled. This distinction is to be 
seen only in the light of true wisdom ; and so to the truly 
wise, the children of wisdom, Elihu addresses himself: 
Hear my words, O ye wise men, and give ear unto 
me, ye that have knowledge. For the ear trieth 
words as the mouth tasteth meat. It is only for those 
who have the spirit of God to discern the things of the 
Spirit, and distinguish the words of truth from those 
of error, i Cor. ii. n. Let us choose to us judgment ; 
let us know among ourselves what Is good. For yob 
hath said, I am righteous, a?id God hath taken away 
my judgment. Should I lie against 7?iy right? My 
wound is incurable without transgression. What 
man is like yob, who drinketh up scorning like 
water; which goeth in company with the workers of 
iniquity, and walketh with wicked men? For he 
hath said, It projiteth a man nothing that he should 
delight himself in God. 

Here, again, are specific charges made against Job. 
Here there appears to be implied a denial of the truth 
or correctness of these assertions of Job ; but we shall 
see that the element of the charge against him, the real 
evil for which he is reproved, is, as before, his murmur- 



ELIHU'S ANSWER. 195 

ing against God. Job has declared himself righteous, 
and we have heretofore considered the truth of this dec- 
laration. He has also declared that God has taken 
away his judgment — that is, has given affliction instead 
of comfort. His friends have affirmed that these evils 
are but the bringing of judgment to him ; and it is in 
answer to their unjust charges he has said this, and in 
this sense it is true. But he thus complains of God for 
afflicting him ; and this is the evil of his answers for 
wicked men. Such a complaint impugns the wisdom 
and right of God, who cannot do wrong nor take away 
a man's judgment. Job, in the bitterness of his an- 
guish, and goaded by the falsehood of his friends, has 
spoken fiercely and without wisdom. Every murmur 
and complaint springs from the ignorance of our carnal 
nature. 

We are not to understand Elihu as having intimated 
that Job has gone with wicked men in crime, but, as 
he expressly declares, in saying, It profit eth. a man 
nothing that he should delight himself with God, or 
that he should be righteous, since by his righteousness 
he cannot escape suffering. Now this is the very ele- 
ment of complaint, and it is the reasoning of the carnal 
mind of God's people as well as of wicked men. They 
say, If God has done all things according to his will, 
then he is unrighteous to take vengeance ( Rom. iii. 5), 
because he might have kept men from evil ; and espe- 
cially if one had eschewed evil, as Job had, they would 
deny God's right to bring pain upon him. And Job, 
in giving expression to his complaints, which spring 
from his rebellious nature, has gone in company with 
wicked men in their opposition to the ways of God, 
while yet he despises them. 



196 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

The peculiarity of Elihu's reply shows that we have 
touched the point of his reproof. Instead of going on 
to accuse Job of wickedness, he gives the same answer 
that Paul does in Romans iii. 4, 6 ; ix. 20, asserting 
that God is right in doing what he will. Therefore 
hearkeii unto me, ye men of understanding ; far be 
it from God, that he should do -wickedness, andfro?n 
the Almighty, that he should commit iniquity. For 
the work of a man shall he render unto him, and 
cause every man to find according to his ways. The 
works of the flesh are evil, and in the flesh even the 
saints shall find trouble and sorrow, and yet have no 
cause to reply against God. So the Psalmist says, 
" All our days are passed away in thy wrath." Our 
Saviour says, " In the world ye shall find tribulation ;" 
yet God is not unjust. Our depravity brings affliction 
justly ; only in Christ can any man find peace. 

Tea, surely God will not do wickedly, neither will 
the Almighty pervert judgment. Who hath given 
him a charge over the earth? or who hath disposed 
the whole world? 

What right have we to say what God ought to do, 
or to murmur at what in his infinite wisdom he does? 
The Infinite must do right. When he chooses, all flesh 
shall perish together, and man shall turn again to 
dust. Can we reply against this? Man, by nature, 
hates right, and shall even he that hateth right govern? 
and wilt thou conde??in him that is most just? For 
Job had complained because wicked' men prospered 
while the righteous suffered. But Elihu shows how 
unfit it is to intimate, by even a murmur, that there is 
injustice with Him that accepteth not the persons of 
princes, nor regardeth the rich more than the poor; 



ELIHU'S ANSWER. l<tf 

for they all are the work of his hands. In a mome7tt 
shall they die, and the people shall be troubled at 
midnight, and shall pass away ; and the mighty shall 
be taken away without hand. God sees and marks 
the ways of all men, and renders infinite justice to all. 
We have no wisdom to judge what is right, but must 
wait for God's work to appear. He will not lay upon 
man more than is right ; that he should e?iter into 
judg?nent with God. Notwithstanding our rebellious 
complaints and false judgments, he goes on with his 
own unchanged purposes, revealing to us so much as 
we have need to know. And he has revealed this, that 
his people have affliction in this life, but that the 
wicked shall also be plentifully rewarded. He over- 
turneth them in the night, or striketh them as wicked 
men in the open sight of others — that is, in the sight 
of his people, who are taught to understand his ways — 
just as seems good to him. 

What a clear declaration of God's sovereignty, and 
of the falsity of the doctrine of Job's friends, is there in 
this passage ! — When he giveth quietness, who then can 
make trouble? and when he hideth his face, who then 
can behold hi?n? whether it be done against a nation 
or against a man only; that the hypocrite reign not, 
lest the people be ensnared. 

Elihu now exhorts to an humble submission to God 
in all his dealings and an acknowledgment of his er- 
rors, as did Christ and his apostles : Surely it is meet 
to be said unto God, I have borne chastisement, I 
will not offend any more. That which I see not, 
teach thou me; if I have done iniquity, I will do no 
more. So the apostles say, "Humble yourselves there- 
fore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt 
17* 



198 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

you in due time." 1 Pet. v. 6 ; James iv. 10. Paul also 
enjoins the same, and charges upon the " holy brethren" 
the same error that Job is reproved for : " Ye have for- 
gotten the exhortation that speaketh unto you as unto 
children ( not as unto aliens), My son, despise not thou 
the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art re- 
buked of him." Heb. xii. 5. Should it be according 
to thy ?ni?id? He 'will recoinpense it, whether thou 
refuse or whether thou choose ; and not I; therefore 
speak what thou knowest. Although the preacher ad- 
ministers the word of reproof, it is not he that recom- 
penses, but the Lord ; and he will give the needed 
chastening, whether we receive it willingly or not. It 
will not be according to our mind or judgment ; and 
why should it? He taketh not counsel of any. Our 
Saviour set the example of that perfect submission that 
is due to God, saying, " Not my will, but thine be 
done." ft 

Men of understanding are called upon to observe 
that fob hath spoken without knowledge, and his 
words were without wisdom. Jeremiah also spoke 
without knowledge when he complained that God had 
deceived him, and refused to speak any more in his 
name. Jer. xx. 7-9. Paul spoke without wisdom when 
he asked the Lord to remove the thorn from his flesh. 
The Lord gave it to him in wisdom, and the desire to 
have it removed, though a truthful expression of his 
suffering nature, yet was not the desire of wisdom. 

Elihu desires that yob may be tried unto the end for 
the rebellion that he has expressed against God's hand 
in answering the unjust charges of wicked men. And 
he will be tried until all the dross is removed, and he 
shall come forth as gold. 



ELIHU' S ANSWER. 199 



CHAPTER XXXV. 



Thinkest thou this to be right that thou saidst, 
My righteousness is more than God's? How it would 
often astonish us to see the true meaning of our murmur- 
ings set forth in plain words, as Elihu has here set forth 
that of Job's. He little thought that he had declared 
his righteousness to be more than God's — for such words 
had not escaped him — but it is the interpretation of 
what he had said. For thou saidst, What advantage 
will it be unto thee? and, What profit shall I have if 
I be cleansed from my sin? As though he had said, 
It will neither be any advantage to God nor any profit 
to me to continue me in this furnace of affliction ; there- 
fore it is not in righteousness, but for his pleasure, that 
he afflicts me ; and my righteousness in judging that he 
ought to remove his afflicting hand is more than his in 
keeping it upon me. Our complaint against affliction 
signifies that it would be better, or more righteous, in 
God not to afflict. But when we are fully tried, we 
shall acknowledge with the Psalmist, " I know that in 
righteousness thou hast afflicted me." 

The doctrine of natural men is, that what good we do 
is for the advantage of God, and he rewards us for it. 
Job therefore has gone in company with the workers 
of iniquity 'in this, and so Elihu answers him and them 
together : I will answer thee, and thy companions with 
thee. And this he does by referring to the exaltation 
of God, manifest even to the natural eye by the height 
of the heavens, and asking, If thou sinnest, what dost 
thou against him? or if thy transgressions be multi- 
plied, what dost thou unto him ? If thou be right- 



200 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

eous, what givest thou him, or what receiveth he of 
thine hand? What a complete answer to all the vain 
thoughts of man ! Our wickedness or righteousness 
may affect men, and we hear the oppressed cry out by 
reason of the arm of the mighty. But how brutishly 
dull and ignorant men are, looking not beyond the 
earthly oppressor, and asking only to be free from the 
temporal oppression ! for none saith, Where is God, 
my Maker, who giveth songs in the night? who teach- 
eth us more than the beasts of the earth, and maketh 
us wiser than the fowls of heaven? And Job in his 
complaints has made himself their companion. He is 
exhorted to turn away from such vanity as the pride of 
evil men teaches, and, however dark and inscrutable the 
ways of God may seem, yet to remember that judgment 
is before him, and therefore to trust in him. 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 

We must pass much that it would be pleasant and 
profitable to dwell upon, and will take up but one more 
subject for particular examination in the discourse of 
Elihu. That is the subject of the discipline of God's 
people, in the discussion of which he is fully manifested 
as representing the gospel ministry. His boldness in 
declaring the truth and importance of what he has to 
say is like that of Paul, but his confidence is in the 
truth and righteousness of God, and not in any know- 
ledge of his own acquisition. 

Suffer me a little, and I will show thee that I have 
yet to speak on God's behalf. I will fetch ?ny know- 



BLIHU'S ANSWER. 201 

ledge from afar, and will ascribe righteousness to my 
Maker. For truly my words shall not be false; he 
that is perfect in knowledge is with thee. The Spirit 
of truth, which is perfect in knowledge, is with Job, 
and will enable him to see the truth of Elihu's words. 
The ministry of the word will only be received by, and 
be edifying to, those who have the Spirit. 

Behold, God is mighty, and despiseth not any; he 
is mighty in strength and wisdom. He preserveth 
not the life of the wicked, but giveth right to the poor. 
The poor, or righteous, are distinguished from the 
wicked in all God's dealings, and his might and wis- 
dom are manifested in his preservation of them through 
all the trials he brings upon them. He withdraweth 
not his eyes from the righteous, but with kings are 
they on the throne; yea, he doth establish them for 
ever, and they are exalted. These are the elect — "the 
poor of this world, rich in faith and heirs of the king- 
dom" (James ii. 5) ; raised from the dust, and made to 
inherit the throne of glory. 1 Sam. ii. 8. They are 
made kings (Rev. i. 6), and established for ever with 
Christ upon his throne. Ps. lxxxix. 36, 37. 

And if they be bound in fetters, and be holden in 
cords of afflictioit, then he showeth them their work 
and their transgressions that they have exceeded. 
The Psalmist describes the same condition of the Lord's 
people under his discipline, and their deliverance. Ps. 
cvii. 10-14. He openeth also their ear to discipline, 
and commandeth that they return from iniquity. If 
they obey and serve him, they shall spend their days 
in prosperity and their years in pleasure. He is not 
teaching a conditional system of salvation here. These 
are not natural men of whom he is speaking, who are 



202 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

informed how they may become subjects of grace and 
be saved ; but they are the righteous, the elect. To 
them are all the warnings and admonitions of the gos- 
pflel. If they take heed to these, walking in gospel 
order, obeying the precepts of Christ, and serving him 
" in their bodies and spirits, which are his," then they 
shall enjoy spiritual comfort and assurance. Thus they 
dwell in God's presence, at his right hand, where there 
is fullness of joy and pleasures for evermore. Ps. xvi. 1 1. 
But if they obey not, they shall perish by the sword, 
and they shall die without k?zowledge. These are 
still the same people — the righteous, the elect, the heirs 
of salvation. All such expressions as this concerning 
their fate if they obey not are understood by the world 
to refer to their everlasting destiny and to mark them 
as finally lost. But this is not so, as the Scriptures 
clearly teach. The next verse we shall see makes a 
clear distinction between these as erring children and 
the hypocrites in heart. The Lord, by the Psalmist, 
speaks of the punishment that shall be inflicted upon 
his children if they obey not, but declares, nevertheless, 
that he will not take away his loving-kindness and 
faithfulness from them as it is given them in Christ. Ps. 
lxxxix. 29-36. Paul says to the saints, " If ye live 
after the flesh, ye shall die ; but if ye through the spirit 
do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live." Rom. 
viii. 13. Death is a separation. The death here spoken 
of is the separation of the child of God from the com- 
forts of religion — from the privileges and blessings and 
honors of the Church. In one's personal experience 
he finds that " to be carnally-minded is death." Let 
his mind become engrossed in the world or follow after 
its errors and delusions, and he loses the sweet comforts 



ELIHU'S ANSWER. 203 

he before enjoyed, and his mind becomes a prey to ha- 
rassing doubts and fears, or is left in even more distress- 
ing coldness. The right path is called " the path of 
life ;" and only while walking in it can we enjoy the 
sweets of spiritual life. Those who have never been 
in it, who have no spiritual life, cannot know the ex- 
treme suffering of a separation from its joys in this 
mortal state. 

Elihu now shows the distinction between these dis- 
obedient children who shall suffer punishment here, and 
the "vessels of wrath," by referring to that class. But 
the hypocrites in heart heap up wrath; they cry not 
when he bindeth them. These do not suffer as the 
righteous must under the display of God's anger to- 
ward them in this life. Though God controls them, 
and binds them when he will, they do not know his 
hand nor cry out by reason of his wrath. It is heaped 
up, or reserved, against the day of wrath. They have 
their good things in this life. " There are no bands in 
their death." We have referred to them heretofore, 
with the description of them in life and death con- 
tained in the seventy-third Psalm. They die in youth — 
that is, before they have reached the number of years 
they expected, and which is necessary to the accom- 
plishment of their worldly purposes and the enjoyment 
of worldly pleasures — and their life is among the un- 
clean. 

With the people of God it is not so. They do cry 
when he bindeth them, and he deliver at h the poor in 
his affliction and openeth their ears in oppression. 
Even so would he have removed thee out of the strait 
into a broad place where there is no straitness ; and 
that which should be set on thy table should be full 



204 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

of fatness. We have to bear in mind that Job, as a 
type of the Church, must represent all her members in 
all their disobedience, and must therefore receive all 
the admonitions and reproofs required under gospel 
discipline by every grade of offence. Transgressors, who 
stand, when exposed by the gospel light, in a condition 
well represented by the literal condition of Job, full of 
shame, self-loathing and anguish, are assured, through 
these words of Elihu to him, that had they truly hum- 
bled themselves before God, he would have restored 
unto them the joys of his salvation. 

But thou hast fulfilled the judgment of the wicked; 
judgment a?id justice take hold on thee. 

In the light of gospel truth Job is condemned for his 
foolish complaints against God. How great the sin of 
such complaints only the clear light of God's truth can 
show us. It is not the wisdom from above, but the 
judgment of the -wicked, the counsel of the carnal 
mind, that is fulfilled in these complaints and murmur- 
ings and these inquiries into God's right to do as he 
pleases. The tendency of true wisdom is to silence the 
rebellion of our old nature, and cause us to bear afflic- 
tion with resignation, as Job did at the first, when, as 
yet, he had not sinned with his lips nor charged God 
foolishly. 

We must find also in him to whom these strong 
words of Elihu are spoken the representative of all 
those who transgress in any manner, as David and 
Peter, and those mentioned by Paul ( i Cor. v. 5 ; 1 
Tim. i. 20), who fulfill, or act in accordance with, the 
judgment of the ivicked, and upon whom judgment 
and justice will surely take hold. 

If our transgressions under the gospel dispensation 



ELIHU'S ANSWER. 205 

are such that we must be cut off from the Church, this 
is to die, or to perish by the sword; and how fearful a 
fate it is can only be known by the child of God who 
has suffered it or has felt that he deserved it. To the 
carnal professor it looks comparatively trifling — a tem- 
porary separation from some companions or from some 
worldly honors, the place and enjoyment of which can 
easily be supplied by something else. But to the true 
Israelite it is worse than natural death, and no pain or 
affliction of a worldly kind is to be compared with it ; 
that is, when the separation is by the just administra- 
tion of the laws of Christ's kingdom. When a Church 
which stands in perfect order separates one from her 
fellowship in accordance with the direction of the apos- 
tles, there is also a complete separation from spiritual 
enjoyment. 

It is to such a fate that many of the warnings of 
Christ and the apostles allude. Such are some of those 
of our Saviour, when he speaks of those who shall have 
their portion assigned with the hypocrites and unbeliev- 
ers ; not that they are themselves hypocrites and unbe- 
lievers, else it would cause them no weeping to be cast 
out among such and lose the companionship of the 
saints. Such also are the following : " But I keep my 
body under and bring it into subjection, lest that by any 
means when I have preached to others, I myself should 
be a castaway." 1 Cor. ix. 27. " For if we sin will- 
fully after that we have received the knowledge of the 
truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a 
certain fearful looking-for of judgment and fiery indig- 
nation, which shall devour the adversaries." Heb. x. 26, 
27. This describes the fearful state of mind into which 
such transgressions bring and leave the transgressor. 

18 



206 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

But only those who are under law to Christ can trans- 
gress his laws, and these are his children, freed from 
the law of Moses by his death. Paul shows in the 
same connection that he speaks only of God's people : 
" For we know him that hath said, Vengeance belong- 
eth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And 
again, The Lord shall judge his people. It is a fearful 
thing to fall into the hands of the living God." Heb. x. 

Such is the warning of Elihu : Because there is 
wrath, beware lest he take thee away with his stroke; 
then a great ransom cannot deliver thee. 

So Paul alludes to the case of Esau as a warning : 
" Lest there be any fornicator or profane person, as 
Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birth-right. 
For ye know how that afterward, when he would have 
inherited the blessing, he was rejected ; for he found no 
place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with 
tears." Heb. xii. 16, 17. Truly "the way of the trans- 
gressor is hard ;" while the ways of wisdom are ways 
of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. 

As Esau could not regain the birth-right he had sold 
for a morsel of meat, so the apostle appears to teach 
that the birth-right privileges of the child of God in his 
house, the Church, may be sacrificed so as never to be re- 
gained, although the transgressor seek them again care- 
fully with tears. What degree of transgression that may 
be which must receive such fearful punishment does not 
so clearly appear. We may believe that the truly 
humbled and penitent soul, after due chastisement, can 
be restored to the joys of God's salvation. The word 
beware, in this warning of Elihu, shows that there is 
yet hope for him who has fulfilled the judg?nent of 



ELIHU' S ANSWER. 207 

the wicked, or has been led away by and into their de- 
vices, if he truly humble himself. A great and most 
precious comfort is conveyed in the assurance of the 
beloved disciple : "If we confess our sins, he is faithful 
and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from 
all unrighteousness." 1 John i. 9. But if we continue 
regardless, and the stroke falls, then it will be too late. 
Whatever degree of force there is in the stroke we must 
now bear, and a great ransom cannot deliver us. Will 
he esteem thy riches f no; not gold, nor all the forces 
of strength. This shows that by the "great ransom" 
Elihu does not refer to Christ as the Ransom who de- 
livers from death, but to some temporal advantage 
which the transgressor may possess, such as great 
power, or honors, or riches, by which he might 
hope to procure deliverance from chastisement, as he 
could from worldly judges. But God is no respecter 
of persons. The rich as well as the poor, those that 
have great gifts as well as the lesser members, are sub- 
ject to discipline, and cannot escape the punishment 
due to their transgressions by reason of any earthly 
power, position or possessions which may belong to 
them. 

Desire not the night when people are cut off in 
their place. Take heed, regard not iniquity, for 
this hast thou chosen rather than affliction. This 
probably refers to Job's frequently-expressed desire to 
escape from his afflictions by being carried away into 
darkness and silence. Elihu now interprets the true 
meaning of this wish, and shows him what iniquity 
there is in it. It is only through great affliction and 
tribulation that we can be separated from the world, 
where iniquity abounds, and enter the kingdom of God. 



208 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

Acts xiv. 22. That affliction, therefore, which God 
sees fit to send upon us for this purpose we ought to 
receive even thankfully and rejoice in. To murmur at 
it shows that we would prefer peace in the world of 
iniquity to the furnace of affliction with the hope of 
being holy. And this is the choice of the carnal mind, 
though not of our spiritual mind. It chooses iniquity 
rather than affliction. Is there any saint who has not 
seen this in his own mind, when he shrinks back from 
affliction and tries to avoid it? It is by faith, by the 
Spirit, that we are enabled to " rejoice in tribulation." 

Now Job's desire to be hidden away in darkness was 
that he might escape from the searching eye of God, 
whose marking of his paths and bringing to light his 
corruption made his suffering so bitter. And this rep- 
resents a thought or feeling that we may recognize in 
the mind of the transgressor. It is but a foolish sugges- 
tion of the natural mind that we can escape from the pun- 
ishment we know to be our due by hiding from the eye 
of God, in the secret of our hearts, as we can from the 
eye of man. It is the Lord, and not man, by whom we 
are judged, and from whom judgment falls. Therefore 
the warnings Desire not the night, when people are 
cut off in their place. 

In the remainder of this, and the whole of the follow- 
ing chapter, Elihu presents evidences of the great 
power and wisdom of God, and his words are full of 
spiritual instruction. But we will leave his discourse 
now, as he has concluded his direct reproofs to Job. 



V^ g agA 



mm-mmm 



XIX. 

THE ANSWER OF THE LORD OUT OF THE WHIRL- 
WIND. 



CHAPTER XXXVIII. 

Then the Lord answered jfob out of the whirl- 
wind, and said. 

Although all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, 
and is to be very reverently handled as his word, yet I 
cannot but feel a more profound awe and reverence in 
approaching this place, and more hesitation and fear in 
attempting to consider the words of this wonderful 
answer. The Lord does not speak here by the mouth 
of a man like ourselves, whose terror shall not make 
us afraid, but with his own voice of terrible majesty 
and with an exhibition of his mighty power. 

The coming of the Lord is often represented in the 
Scriptures as in the whirlwind : " The Lord cometh 
with fire, and his chariots like a whirlwind.'' Isa. lxvi. 
15 ; Jer. iv. 13 ; xxiii. 19. " The Lord hath his way 
in the whirlwind." Nah. i. 3. " The Lord shall go 
with whirlwinds of the south." Zech. ix. 14. And 
with what wonderful power is the effect of his approach 
to man thus represented ! As the whirlwind tears and 
sweeps away whatever is unsubstantial about us, scat- 
tering our earthly treasures and leaving desolation in 
is* 209 



2IO THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

its track, so the approach of the Lord to man sweeps 
away his earthly riches, honors and supports, and leaves 
him naked and bare and trembling in the presence of 
infinite majesty and holiness. Before the face of the 
Lord nothing of an earthly nature can endure. Even 
the everlasting mountains were scattered and the per- 
petual hills did bow as he stood and measured the 
earth, and beheld and drove asunder the nations, who 
are chased as a rolling thing before the whirlwind. 
Heb. iii. 6 ; Isa. xvii. 13. 

Only the righteous can endure his coming and stand 
when he appeareth, for with them is the word of our 
God, which alone shall stand for ever. To the wicked 
his coming is destruction (2 Thess. i. 9; ii. 8); and 
their destruction cometh as a whirlwind. Prov. i. 27. 
As the whirlwind passeth, so is the wicked no more. 
Prov. x. 25. They are driven away as the chaff that 
is driven with the whirlwind out of the floor. Hosea 
xiii. 3. Such expressions are frequent in the prophets, 
and the day of the Lord's coming is called " the day of 
the whirlwind." Zech. vii. 14. 

When the Lord communicates with his people, and 
causes his voice to be heard by them, all their own 
wisdom and knowledge and all their earthly purposes 
and hopes are scattered as with a whirlwind, and they 
stand bereft and silent to hear what he will speak. 
The Psalmist describes his voice as "powerful" and 
" full of majesty." " The voice of the Lord breaketh 
the cedars ; yea, the Lord breaketh the cedars of Leba- 
non." " The voice of the Lord divideth the flames of 
fire." " The voice of the Lord shaketh the wilderness." 
"The voice of the Lord maketh the hinds to calve and 
discovered! the forests ; and in his temple doth every 



THE ANSWER OF THE LORD. 211 

one speak of his glory." Ps. xxix. The word of the 
Lord that came to Isaiah as " the burden of the desert 
of the sea," came " as whirlwinds of the south pass 
through." Isa. xxi. i. And so it still comes to all his 
servants, breaking down and sweeping their opposition 
and fears, and leaving them with nothing to speak but 
the word that has thus come to them. When he would 
speak to Elijah in the Mount of Horeb, a strong wind, 
an earthquake and a fire made way for the still small 
voice of his word ; and in a whirlwind he came to take 
the prophet from earth to heaven. In like manner, 
with an awful display of terrible majesty is he described 
as descending to deliver the Son of God from the sor- 
rows of death and hell — from the grasp of his strong 
enemy ; and then were the foundations of the world 
discovered, as they are to all his children when he comes 
to them. Ps. xviii. 4-17. 

Let us now turn to Job ; and may the Lord enable us 
to understand by our own experience something of the 
divine power that touched his soul as the answer of 
the Lord out of the whirlwind reached him ! There 
may have been a sound to the natural ear, but we do 
not think that it was with the natural ear that the voice 
of the Lord was heard. We cannot even imagine Job 
still sitting in the ashes literally, surrounded by his 
friends, while the communications of the Lord came to 
them all with an audible sound and awed them into 
silence. How long his trial has lasted we are not told, 
nor is it necessary to the spiritual instruction for which 
the record is given that we should know whether hours 
or years, nor whether he remained in the same place. 
The trial was spiritual, and throughout the history we 
are regarding a soul, rather than worldly circumstances 



212 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

— a soul heavily burdened and cast down with sorrow, 
yet not destroyed ; bearing itself with a firmness it can- 
not itself understand, in defence of the truth, against all 
of the opposition of the world and the devil ; a soul 
bowed and humbled before the great Jehovah, yet send- 
ing up from its heavy sorrow questioning groans and 
complaints to the very throne of the God it adores — com- 
plaints that are prompted by the fleshly mind, which is 
to be yet more completely humbled and silenced. We 
have seen that soul listening in humble silence to the 
authoritative words of Elihu ; and now it is that soul 
alone that we can think of as listening to the answer 
of the Lord. Where his friends may be our mind does 
not inquire. There is the suffering soul that questioned 
not but that all his affliction was from the hand of a 
just and infinite God, yet questioned why one so great 
and mighty should ordain affliction and send pain upon 
the creature of his power. We see that soul bowed in 
silent awe and reverence while the searching voice of 
the Infinite sounds through all the mysterious chambers 
and depths of its intelligence and feeling. While that 
speech of the Omnipotent continues the complaints are 
hushed, the pain and sorrow are forgotten, swallowed 
up, swept away. When heavenly wisdom breaks into 
and fills the soul it leaves no place for the recognition 
of pain. When the thoughts are lifted to the Infinite 
they cannot contemplate trouble. 

Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words with- 
out knowledge? Gird up now thy loins like a man; 
for I will demand of thee, and answer thou nie. 

I desire to express plainly and fully as I may be able 
how I think may be seen here a representation of what 
is spiritually experienced by the child of God when 



THE ANSWER OF THE LORD. 213 

the Lord comes with power into his soul. How few 
and far apart are the moments when we feel a full and 
absorbing sense of the presence of Almighty God, and 
are able to speak with absolute present experience of 
his power and of his everlasting, enrapturing love. 
We may hear the words of truth proclaimed day by 
day, and believe them and rejoice in them and contend 
earnestly for them and rest upon them all our hope, 
and yet all the time be waiting for an experience of 
their power. When that comes, it is the answer of the 
Lord directly to our souls, in which, as with a whirl- 
wind, he sweeps away all earthly hindrances and ob- 
jects that intervene, and brings us into full spiritual 
communion with himself. Whatever we speak con- 
cerning him at another time is, in a certain sense, dark- 
ening counsel by words without knowledge. The 
feeblest saint, triumphant in the hour of death, speaks 
with more certain and absolute knowledge, so far as 
himself is concerned, than the mightiest prophet. The 
prophet speaks with absolute certainty and authority 
by inspiration of God, yet may himself be at the same 
time searching and inquiring diligently concerning the 
power of what he speaks as God gives him utterance 
( i Pet. i. 11), and may be longing to feel the full power 
and enjoyment of it. Every preacher of the gospel, 
as well as all who speak upon the glorious subject, will 
understand what is intimated here. And as it is with 
the preacher, that he is often obliged to speak and 
knows that he is speaking the blessed and comforting 
truth of God w r hile yet his own soul is barren of enjoy- 
ment, longing in vain to feel its power, so it is with 
the hearer ; of all the array of scriptural truth which 
we receive and retain in the memory, but one word 



214 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

may be applied with power so as to lift us up, and so 
that we can say in our souls to God, Now mine eye 
seetk thee. This word the Lord gives us. It is his 
answer out of the whirlwind. 

When we were first shown that we were sinners, it 
was by a revelation of God to our soul. Men had told 
us before, and we had probably acknowledged with the 
lips and natural understanding, that we were sinners ; 
but now, for the first time, we felt it. How the thoughts 
arrayed themselves through the mind in which the in- 
finity and holiness of God were presented, perhaps 
none could remember to describe ; but they are all, no 
doubt, embraced in these questions of the Lord. When 
a peaceable hope was given and our despairing souls 
quieted, through what train and connection of thoughts 
it came no one can fully tell, but it was by a more full 
revelation of the Infinite in his glorious grace and 
mercy. We had heard of the Saviour and had heard 
the truth concerning salvation, and perhaps gave it a 
natural assent, even believed it, but now we felt it. 
We saw the Saviour, but it was in the soul we saw 
him and with the spiritual intelligence, and the thoughts 
were in some way involved, though how we cannot tell. 
From that time we may go on long hearing the Word 
and gladly receiving it, before we have another full ex- 
perience of its power. And often the waiting and 
hoping Christian has to look back for assurance to the 
time when he felt the power of God at the first. To 
the last of our pilgrimage we are as dependent upon 
him for an experience of his power and love as at the 
first. 

We have never been able by voluntarily setting our 
minds at work to reach upward and outward far enough 



THE ANSWER OF THE LORD. 215 

to see and feel the power of unfathomable mystery — to 
know that we cannot know, to feel what it is to be 
finite. But sometimes our thoughts seem to be carried 
away by some wonderful, unknown power to the very 
verge of the infinite in space and time, not enabling us 
to see its extent, but that we may see that it is infinite 
and beyond the possible reach of thought. 

While we are walking among hills and through 
woods, we may know as well as at another time that 
the earth is very wide and that great extent is wonder- 
ful. But when we emerge from the confined place, 
and the eye all at once is sweeping free over the broad 
expanse of earth or ocean, and barred only in its onward 
course by the limit of its own strength, then we feel 
what in the narrow dell our imagination could not bring 
to us. So the mind at times emerges from the nar- 
row wilderness-paths and confined places of ordinary 
thought, and sees the sweeping distances of immeasur- 
able extent stretching away before it, and springs with 
all its sense of power onward to reach the limit of 
space or time, but to return baffled from the illimitable. 

It is not when we are looking at the distant stars 
and estimating their wonderful distances that this sense 
of the infinite is experienced. The eyes are closed, 
perhaps, as in thought we go on and on, determined 
not to flag, until finally we ask, with a mental gasp as 
for breath, Where is the end? and what is beyond that? 
and is there no bound? And with one more great and 
desperate effort to reach farther, and grasp some bound- 
ing line, and gather into our view the limit of the circle 
that nowhere exists, we shrink back weary and af- 
frighted and humble. 

A great rock lies where we look upon it daily. We 



216 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

know it is of great weight. But some morning, when 
an exultant sense of energy pervades our frame, we bear 
ourselves against it, gathering against it all our power, 
and straining each feeling of strength to the utmost, yet 
it feels not the slightest jar. Then we simply know 
that there is in our body no power that can measure its 
weight. So when the mind feels strong, with all its 
mysterious energies gathered and at its command, then, 
if it be directed till it reach the great mysteries, and 
suffered to force itself with all its concentrated power 
against them, it will simply feel what the mystery of 
the infinite is, and fall humbled before God. 

It is thus that Job is made to feel and see the sove- 
reign and infinite power and wisdom of God. He is 
prepared with all his own power, commanded to gird 
up his loins like a man, bring into exercise all his 
strength, and then answer. It is by questions that we 
cannot answer that the greatness of God is made known 
to us. Not questions addressed to the outward ear or 
natural intelligence, but inquiries the power of which 
we are prepared- by Him who sends them into our soul 
to feel, and which rush through our very being, filling 
us with a burning sense of the infinite interest they 
bear, and urging a strong and pervading desire to break 
through by the door of their answer into the mysterious 
realms of knowledge that lie beyond. With every such 
unanswerable question another intimation of the great- 
ness of God is given to us. 

Job has been reasoning concerning the necessity of 
his own affliction, which he knows to be according to 
God's counsel, and has murmured at it. Let the lover 
of the truth remember the questionings that have arisen 
in his own mind concerning God's ways in providence, 



THE ANSWER OF THE LORD. 217 

which perhaps he has feared to acknowledge even to 
himself. Through the words of Job he has seen the 
workings of his own mind exposed. Now comes this 
whirlwind of knowledge from God concerning his un- 
approachable wisdom and power and glory. The mys- 
teries of the universe are gathered before him. His 
mind is whirled away to the beginning of time and be- 
fore ; upward to the vast regions of space ; downward 
to the great depths ; into the wonders of all existences 
and their preservation ; then the doors of darkness and 
the shadows of death stare upon his wondering thoughts ; 
and the inexpressible greatness of Him who holds all in 
his will and who inhabits eternity seems to come full 
upon his view, leaving him with neither power nor will 
to answer again. 

Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of 
the earth? Declare, if thou hast understanding. 

Who can even suggest the many questions that are 
involved in this one, the mysteries enrolled in myste- 
ries? Before the world was made, where was that out 
of which man's wonderful body was formed, and where 
his more wonderful life and intelligence ? And in ask- 
ing this, we overleap innumerable wonders concerning 
the descent to each of us, through all the evolutions 
and involutions of generation, and the manifestation 
in us of that being and life that was hidden in the ex- 
istence of Adam when he walked the garden. Here is 
now an intelligence, a soul, one of a myriad such that 
were all in that one man, and which, at the time to 
which the question refers, existed only in the eternal 
repose of God's mighty power. And can this soul send 
up a question concerning the work of that Being? 

All the inscrutable wonders of power and wisdom 

19 



2l8 . THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

displayed in the creation of the world out of nothing 
are here presented to the mind that has been made at- 
tentive by the Lord. From whence came Jehovah to 
the work of creation? What existed before where the 
world now is? How from nothing came forth all this 
mighty mass? Let question after question arise, but 
they must remain for ever unanswered to our mortal 
intelligence. Where wast thou? So we are made to 
feel that God is infinite, and that we have no under- 
standing. 

Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou know- 
est, and who hath stretched the line upon it? Where- 
upon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who 
laid the corner-stone thereof, when the morning 
stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted 
for joy? 

It is said of Christ that all things were made by him 
and for him. Col. i. 16. All visible things are figures 
of the invisible or spiritual, and set forth the wonders 
of the Redeemer's kingdom. And now while the nat- 
ural mind is carried back by these interrogations to the 
beginning of time and to the inscrutable mysteries of 
natural creation, faith beholds greater things presented 
here — even the wonders of redemption, the everlasting 
purpose of God, in which are enfolded all the mysteries 
and glories of the kingdom of Christ. The foundation 
and corner-stone to which Job is referred may be re- 
garded as Christ, the Foundation of the New Earth, in 
the laying of which judgment is laid to the line and 
righteousness to the plummet. 

Although the manifestation of Christ in the flesh was 
long after Job lived in the order of time, yet "he is be- 
fore all things, and by him all things subsist." He is 



THE ANSWER OF THE LORD. • 219 

before and above all time, "the King eternal, immortal, 
invisible." He is, as the Foundation in Zion, before 
the first of earth's children who hoped, for upon him 
the hope of the righteous rests. He says, " Before 
Abraham was, I am." He does not speak as though 
Abraham had to look forward to see him, neither does he 
place himself back in the order of time to a point previ- 
ous to the day of Abraham. He does not say, Before 
Abraham was, I was. But he whose "goings forth 
have been from of old, from everlasting," " with whom 
there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning," 
"Jesus Christ, the same yesterday and to-day and for 
ever," " with whom a thousand years are as one day, 
and one day as a thousand years," says, " Before Abra- 
ham was, I am !" Men have been and are to be, but 
Christ only and for ever is. 

When the morning stars sang together. Christ is 
the Sun of Righteousness, whose rising is the morning. 
His angels or ministers that follow him, " that do his 
bidding, hearkening unto the voice of his word," are 
called stars, and they shine in the firmament of the 
New Heavens for ever. When Christ arose from the 
dead it was as the Sun of Righteousness. Then was 
the spiritual morning manifested. Then was made 
known "in the midst of the years" (Hab.'iii. 2) the 
eternal realities of the world of glory. Then the disci- 
ples, the apostles — the morning stars — proclaimed glad 
tidings, sent forth their light in the utterance of that 
blessed doctrine which is as a glorious song to the 
hearts of those who rejoice in it, and were perfectly 
harmonious in all their proclamations and teachings, 
being " of one heart and of one soul." As the myriad 
stars that filled the vast expanse above in the morning 



220 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

of the creation, though differing in glory, mingled their 
various radiance in a perfect harmony of light, like va- 
rious strains in a glorious song of praise, so these morn- 
ing stars, set in the spiritual firmament, sang together. 
It was long after the world was made, in the order of 
time, that this morning light broke forth upon the world. 
And so it is still later and later that it appears to each 
of those who come after as they are successively mani- 
fested in time. With each it is morning when the light 
of truth first breaks upon his soul, bringing peace and 
joy. Yet when he sings the new song, it is in har- 
mony with the morning stars, yea, in harmony and to- 
gether with Abraham and all the earlier saints, with 
whom, and with all the general assembly of the Church 
of the first-born, he has set down together in the ever- 
lasting kingdom that is not of this world nor of time, 
upon the Mount Zion (Matt. viii. n ; Heb. xi. 23) ; 
for there his dwelling-place must be when he is en- 
abled to sing, and his songs take hold on eternity. Isa. 
xlii. 11. 

But who shall be able to say when the light of that 
morning was first formed, when the glory of salvation 
was first ordained and sent forth to fill the heaven 
where Christ eternally dwells? It was not when it 
first dawned upon our souls. It was not when it shone 
forth transcendently on the day of Pentecost. It was 
not when the earliest saint first found comfort in its heav- 
enly radiance. It was not when God commanded the 
light of this natural world to shine out of darkness. 
Who shall say that the morning of that spiritual day of 
which Christ is the light, and which we rejoice and are 
glad in when his glory is revealed to us, is later than 
the morning of time, or that it is at all connected with 



THE ANSWER OF THE LORD. 221 

time ? Farther back yet we must go, or farther up- 
ward or beyond ; for we leave the region of successive 
years and ages, where duration is measured and where 
there are past and future, and rise to that changeless 
eternity that is not divided or disturbed by all this 
stretch of time that we sometimes speak of as interve- 
ning between the eternity past and the eternity future, 
before we dare to look for the beginning of that Light 
that was in the beginning with God, and to say when 
heaven began to ring with songs of praise to the King 
of glory. And here we fail, and see the weakness of 
our powers of thought, and find the mystery of salva- 
tion, and feel the force of the question, Where wast 
thou? When spiritual and eternal joy was first or- 
dained for sinners to be redeemed from death, where 
were we? Shall not such a question, such a thought, 
silence our murmurings and make us truly humble be- 
fore God? So he says to us, " Be still, and know that 
I am God." 

Or who shut up the sea with doors, when it brake 
forth as if it had issued out of the womb? When I 
made the cloud the garment thereof and thick dark- 
uess a swaddling-band for it, and brake up for it my 
decreed place, and set bars and doors, and said, Hith- 
erto shall thou come, but no farther; and here shall 
thy proud waves be stayed? 

With what fullness and strength of language are the 
mysteries of the ocean and its issuing forth from the re- 
cesses of Almighty power here presented, and how 
wonderfully forced upon the mind ! But when the sea 
is made to represent to us the great existence of evil, 
with its, to us, undefined boundaries and immeasurable 
extent, a greater import is seen in the question. And 
19* 



222 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

it seems to be so presented in the Scriptures. Out of 
the sea the great beast arose ; in it Leviathan has his 
abode ; and, like the troubled sea, the wicked cast up 
mire and dirt. But there is nothing undefined or un- 
decreed with God. He had his decreed place for the 
mighty ocean of iniquity. It is fully within his creative 
and controlling power. Isa. xlv. 7. It shall do his bid- 
ding. It shall come so far as he will, but there its 
proud waves shall be stayed. There is nothing that can 
transpire through the wrath of man or the rage and 
malice of Satan but shall redound to the praise and 
glory of God. Ps. lxxvi. 10. 

Hast thou commanded the morning 1 since thy days; 
and caused the dayspring to know his place; that it 
might take hold of the ends of the earth, that the 
wicked might be shaken out of it? 

What a forcible reminder is here of man's limited 
power — of his utter inability to control in any degree 
that which represents his own joy and comfort ! The 
spiritual application of the question is apparent in the 
terms used. It is " the Dayspring from on high" that 
is here presented, which, " through the tender mercy 
of God, hath visited" his people, "a light to lighten the 
Gentiles" — the ends of the earth — " and the glory of 
his people Israel." Luke i. 78 ; ii. 32. It is by the 
power of this light that the wicked, as shades of dark- 
ness before the rising sun, are shaken out of the earth, 
" destroyed with the brightness of his coming." 2 Thess. 
ii. 8. Have we ever been able to command this blessed 
morning, and bring the warming and comforting beams 
upon us when we were in spiritual darkness and cold- 
ness? The question is not asked of those who, like 
the earthly friends of Job, have never seen this light, 



THE ANSWER OF THE LORD. 223 

but of him upon whom it has once shined. Can he 
look back to the time when it first shone forth from the 
infinite mind of God? Was it ordained at man's will? 
It came not at the first to answer any command of ours, 
nor is it now within the reach of our control. We 
wait for it as " they that watch for the morning" ( Ps. 
cxxx. 6) ; and when at the command of Him who causes 
it to know its place it breaks upon us, then the call is 
obeyed : " Arise, shine ! for thy light is come, and the 
glory of the Lord is risen upon thee." Isa. lx. 1. And 
then we sing, '* This is the day which the Lord hath 
made ; we will rejoice and be glad in it." Ps. cxviii. 24. 
In the darkness of which we have complained he pre- 
pared us to enjoy this heavenly light. 

It is turned as clay to the seal; and they stand as 
doth a garment. 

As the earth does not remain obdurately in darkness 
when the sun would impress upon it the seal of his 
glory, but yields passively to the power of his light, so 
when the spiritual Sun sends his beams upon the earth 
it is turned passively to their influence as clay to the 
seal. When he seals his people with his Holy Spirit, 
they are made plastic to receive the impress of that seal, 
which they bear unto the day of redemption. Eph. i. 
13 ; iv. 30. His people are made willing in the day 
of his power. Ps. ex. 3. The morning, the dayspring, 
stands as a garment, a vesture, enfolding the unapproach- 
able glory of God. " Thou clothest thyself with light 
as with a garment." 

And from the wicked their light is withholden, and 
the high arm shall be broken. Who shall dare ques- 
tion why light is withholden from one and given to an- 
other? It is the Lord that speaks. " Let the kings of 



224 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

the earth hold their peace." " He hath done whatso- 
ever he pleased." Ps. cxv. iii. And we have only to 
hear what he speaks ( Ps. lxxxv. 8), and say, "Even 
so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight." Matt, 
xi. 25, 26. 

Hast thou entered into the springs of the sea? or 
hast thou walked in the search of the depth ? 

Away down there in the mysterious depths of ocean 
how often the inquiring thoughts wander, asking whence 
all the waters arise, how the constant supply is kept, 
and longing to look upon the strange wonders of the 
deep ! But those mighty and marvelous depths are for 
ever closed from our view. Much more the great 
depths where the prince of darkness reigns — where 
Leviathan holds his course, unmoved by fear or love or 
pity. Have we walked in search of the depths of in- 
iquity ? Have we explored the recesses of evil and the 
fountains of wickedness that are within the hearts of 
the ungodly ? Have we been able to measure and com- 
prehend wickedness itself, and to know fully the ex- 
ceeding sinfulness of sin? "The heart is deceitful 
above all things, and desperately wicked ; who can 
know it?" Jer. xvii. 9. How then shall we judge Him 
in his work and dealings with men before whom are 
the righteous and the wicked, and to whose eye there 
is no depth or hidden place? His "judgments area 
great deep" ( Ps. xxxvi. 6), in which are comprehended 
all other depths. Who can search them out? 

Have the gates of death been opened unto thee? or 
hast thou seen the doors of the shadow of death? 

How rapidly the varied mysteries are presented, and 
the mind whirled from one to another ! Let him who 
has dared to lift a murmuring thought to God concern- 



THE ANSWER OF THE LORD 225 

ing his dealing with us now try his power upon some 
of these, and answer when he demands. Why does the 
mind grow dizzy and faint even from the first? The 
bars and bounds between us and the infinite are here 
revealed, and the mind of him to whom they are shown 
by these demands is allowed to throw itself with all its 
power against them, that it may feel how utterly im- 
passable they are. 

How many dear friends we have seen die ! how many 
an hour we have spent in the contemplation of death ! 
Surely cannot we say that we have seen the doors of 
the shadow of death, even if they have not been opened 
to us? No, we have never seen them. We have seen 
the eye close, the breath cease, the pulse grow still ; 
and then our imagination has followed the spirit, as we 
thought, on its viewless journey to its eternal home. 
But in all this we have been strictly confined to the 
world ; our imaginations have been material and 
worldly. We have never yet seen what it is to die, 
except what appears to the outward view, nor had a 
glimpse of the realm beyond. It is impossible for the 
human mind to conceive of a state of existence where 
neither space nor time is. Faith only has looked be- 
yond, and mortal comprehension cannot receive the 
knowledge of faith. We only know of faith that it is a 
confiding grasp and embrace of the word of God, " the 
substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things 
not seen," and that it brings peace and rest. 

And yet, while death is so impenetrable a mystery, 
Job has uttered a wish that he might find in its dark- 
ness and silence a release from his affliction. This was 
but a wish of the natural mind, in uttering which he 
spoke without wisdom, and darkened counsel by words 

P 



226 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

without knowledge. What mortal could know that 
darkness and silence and rest are beyond ? The faith 
of God's elect, in the exercise of which our afflictions 
are borne with patience, sees a certain and unending 
rest in the bosom of eternal love that shall be fully en- 
joyed when we shall pass through the doors of death. 
But the imagination of man does not reach there. The 
saint does not know what he shall be, but it is enough 
for him to know that he shall be like his Saviour when 
he shall appear, i John iii. 2. 

Hast thou perceived the breadth of the earth? De- 
clare, if thou knowest it all. 

Here at least we might suppose was a question that we 
could answer in the affirmative ; for although the glance 
of one man can go but a little way over the breadth 
of the earth, yet by the united view and work of many- 
has it not been all mapped and measured ? But here 
also the infinite is presented. That which this ques- 
tion embraces is still beyond the powers of our percep- 
tion. With the breadth of the earth is included all that 
lies within that breadth, with all the mysteries presented 
in the ensuing questions. When should we ever be 
able to complete a survey and perceive it all, since at 
one point we should be held an age without having yet 
been able to explore and unravel the secrets it holds ? 
We think we can imagine an infinity of greatness and 
extent as we look up to the revolving worlds above us 
and consider their countless numbers and immeasurable 
distances. But have we attempted to imagine an in- 
finity in the opposite direction? And yet infinity is 
there, boundless and unsearchable as that of immensity. 
Smaller and smaller we may imagine the atom or point 
in space to become as we divide and sub-divide, but 



THE ANSWER OF THE LORD. 227 

where shall we find a resting-point at nothing, where 
the lessening process cannot still go on ? How long 
shall we have divided, how great shall have become the 
decrease, when we can no longer divide the imagined 
particle or point into ten thousand or a million parts, 
and continue still to reduce? Away down there, in the 
realms of littleness, in the infinite convergency of space, 
in the infinitesimal point, unnumbered degrees re- 
moved away from our sight, though lying within the 
circle of our reach, there is a world, a universe, an in- 
finity, which the glance of the Almighty alone can sur- 
vey, and where infinite power and wisdom alone can 
work. And the limitless character of God is presented 
to us by the unanswerable inquiries in this as well as in 
the other direction. Who can say he has perceived the 
breadth of the earth ? Who knoweth it all ? 

But when we consider the New Earth, the Mount 
Zion, where the innumerable company of the saints are 
gathered and have their infinite spiritual dwelling-place, 
and where are all the wonderful and precious things that 
God has prepared for them that love him, the question 
carries us to the far higher range of spiritual things, and 
leaves us lost in adoring wonder, love and praise as the 
boundless fields of heaven present themselves to our 
faith and the glorious light of God fills us with un- 
questioning joy. 

Where is the way where light dwelleth? and as 
for darkness, where is the place thereof, that thou 
shouldst take it to the bound thereof and that thou 
shouldst know the paths to the house thereof? Knozv- 
est thou it because thou wast then born, or because the 
number of thy days is great? 

Search through all the writings of men, and where 



228 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

shall we find language so perfectly fitting with expres- 
sion the deep and longing inquiries of the mind concern- 
ing the most familiar things about us? — longings and 
inquiries that reach into the (to us) vague regions be- 
yond the possible explorations of science, and wander 
there for ever without satisfaction or rest, until they are 
quieted by a humble and rejoicing trust in God, and 
lost in an absorbing feeling of praise to Him the depths 
of whose wisdom and knowledge are unsearchable and 
past finding out. Philosophers may investigate and 
cause us to wonder at the published results of their re- 
searches and study, and yet the secrets which these 
questions of Jehovah cover remain secrets still. The 
searches of the human mind and the answers of science 
and philosophy do not even point in that direction. 

The origin and nature of light have been made the 
subject of deep and learned study, and theories have 
been elaborated and illustrated by marvelous experi- 
ments, and yet the question is as unanswerable as ever 
by man — Where is the ivaywhere light divellethP If 
we trace the rays of natural light to the sun and explain 
all we can as to how it sends them forth, we yet have 
not seen the place where light dwelleth. How came 
light in the sun? Whence did it first spring forth, and 
what was before light? And as for darkness, that also 
is part of the creation of God. Isa. xlv. 7. When it 
comes upon us, can we trace it back to its hiding-place? 
Can we follow it like a river to its source? Can we 
see its bounds, and follow the paths by which it has 
come to us till we reach the house it occupies? At 
what point in time or eternity did it first come forth? 

With spiritual light, the knowledge of the glory of 
God, how much greater the mvsterv to the saint ! 



THE ANSWER OF THE LORD. 229 

Words may be multiplied in telling what inquiring 
thoughts we have had concerning the wonders of spir- 
itual light, which represents all spiritual knowledge, 
love, joy, peace, comfort ; and concerning darkness, or 
the absence of all these, and the experience of sorrow, 
coldness, pain. But these inquiries can never be fully 
told, nor can any other so comprehensive expression be 
given to them as in the form of these questions. As 
for the light and darkness themselves, we can experi- 
ence them, but not explain them. One moment joy is 
in our mind, peace nestles softly in the heart, and love 
thrills all the being with delight ; we may watch the 
feeling, but cannot explain it. The love of Christ pass- 
eth knowledge (Eph. iii. 19), the peace of God passeth 
all understanding (Phil. iv. 7), and the joy in the Holy 
Ghost is inexpressible (1 Pet. i. 8). The next moment, 
perhaps, grief takes the same place, or rasping anger, 
or withering fear, or the cringing pain of self-reproach 
and shame. We note the difference in the feeling from 
the former, and the various shades of difference among 
these various feelings, as one recedes before another, or 
several passions hold mingled or conflicting sway ; but 
what can we tell about it? Light and darkness are alike 
inexplicable. We only know that God created both 
light and darkness, peace and evil (Isa. xlv. 7), and yet 
that " in him is no darkness at all ;" that he is the fountain 
of light ; and that when we are enabled to drink at that 
fountain and to rest humbly in him, our questionings 
and murmurings cease and our longing souls are satis- 
fied. "Truly the light is sweet, and a pleasant thing it 
is for the eyes to behold the sun." Eccles. xi. 7. 

Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow? 
or hast thou seen the treasures of the hail, which I 
20 



230 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

have rese?'ved against the time of trouble, against the 
day of battle and war? 

As the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, 
so God's word is sent effectually forth upon the earth. 
Isa. lv. 10. His doctrine drops as the rain and distills 
as the dew, reviving and nourishing the tender plants 
in the garden of the Lord. His word also is like the 
snow when that work is required which the use and 
effect of snow upon the earth represents. The Church 
is not afraid of snow for her household, for they are all 
clothed with scarlet. Prov. xxxi. 21. To them God 
"giveth snow like wool." As the snow, though cold 
in itself, yet benefits the land where it rests through the 
winter, so from the same source from which the refresh- 
ing spiritual rain descends upon us there comes also the 
cold of snow — afflictions and griefs — to protect us as 
wool from the destructive chill of winter ; and as the 
land is softened and broken up by the melting snow in 
spring more deeply than ever by the rain, so are we 
prepared by affliction for the reception of spiritual seed 
that may take root downward and bear fruit upward to 
the honor and glory of God. 

The hail that destroyed the Egyptians sets forth in a 
figure the terrible judgments of God by which he over- 
comes his enemies when he goes forth in his anger 
against the inhabitants of the earth. If the treasures of 
the natural snow and hail are so unsearchable, how 
much more so are these spiritual treasure-houses, 
builded we know not where, from whence come forth 
at the command of God showers of blessing, afflictions 
like fleeces of protecting snow, and hail-storms of ven- 
geance ! 

And how can we follow farther the vast and incom- 



THE ANSWER OF THE LORD. 23 1 

prehensible array of wonders and inscrutable mysteries? 
We are but the more and more lost in bewilderment at 
every new question, yet permitted to rejoice a little in 
being able to get a glimpse of spiritual things through 
them. All we have attempted to do has been faintly to 
connect these inquiries with our own experience, and 
try to recall the feeling that was ours when the force of 
each question was upon us, and see something of their 
meaning by the light of other Scriptures, as the Spirit 
might direct. Not a spiritual inquiry has ever arisen 
in our mind but the essence of it is here suggested in 
these answers of the Lord to Job, which compass about 
all our intellectual and spiritual being, make plain to us 
the limit of our powers and knowledge, and stretch away 
in every direction infinitely beyond. 

The inquiries proceed concerning the parting of the 
light, the scattering of the east wind and the making a 
way for the lightning of thunder ; concerning the pur- 
pose that sends rain upon the desolate wilderness, as 
well as upon the fruitful field cultivated for the use of 
man ; the care that nourishes the herb and tints the 
flower with beautiful hues, as well in the desolate places 
where there is no man as where there are multitudes to 
enjoy them. And all at once how the all-supervising 
care, the overruling power, the purpose of love and 
mercy that lies back of all manifestation, are presented 
in the question that comes suddenly upon us, wonderful 
in simplicity, yet suggesting the mighty power and wis- 
dom and loving-kindness from which all spiritual bless- 
ings descend : Hath the rain a father? or who hath 
begotten the drops of dew? 

The inquiries concerning our knowledge are here 
suspended for a while, closing with the wonders of the 



232 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

ice and the hoary frost of heaven, by which the waters 
are hid as with a stone under the frozen face of the 
deep. 

And now what of our power to do, which includes 
wisdom and knowledge and strength combined ? 

Canst thou bind the sweet influence of Pleiades, or 
loose the bands of Orion? Canst thou bring forth 
Mazzaroth in his season? or canst thou guide Arctu- 
rus with his sons? Knowest thou the ordinances of 
heaven? Canst thou set the dominion thereof in the 
earth? 

And if the constellations and ordinances of the nat- 
ural heavens are so amazingly beyond our reach, how 
much more those of the spiritual firmament! Men un- 
taught of God suppose they have much to do with the 
arrangement of the Church, and much power to place 
gifts for her light and instruction, to ordain angels or 
ministers who are as stars in the gospel heaven. But 
much more within their power are the stars in their 
courses than are these divine ordinances. God only can 
set their dominion in the earth. More readily could we 
keep back the light of Pleiades from the earth than we 
could bind the sweet influences of God's precious gifts 
in his Church, which he has set as he pleased in radiant 
and harmonious clusters, or restrain the light that he 
has given to one of his servants to dispense for the com- 
fort and joy of his people ; and the bands of Orion were 
more easily loosed by mortal hands than the bands of 
his restraint from any man. When God sends forth his 
servants and loosens their tongues to speak his truth, 
all the powers of earth and hell cannot bind or restrain 
the sweet influences of their light ; and when he with- 
holds his light, the mightiest prophet is powerless to 



THE ANSWER OF THE LORD. 233 

speak — is " shut up, and cannot come forth." How can 
one who knows not even where light dwelleth imagine 
himself able to bring forth a star of light and set its do- 
minion in the earth — tell where and when and for whose 
comfort it shall shine? How should a poor limited 
mortal, filled with darkness which is itself beyond his 
comprehension, suppose himself able to render even 
the least assistance in raising up and qualifying and 
sending forth one to preach the everlasting gospel, or 
to hasten or retard the time of his going to work? 
Though they are but weak mortals like their brethren, 
and only " earthen vessels," yet, as God's ministers, 
they are higher than the stars above human reach, and 
move in the work he has called them to unaffected by 
all the changes of earth. (See Acts xiii. 2, and xiv. 26.) 
The work to which he appoints them, notwithstanding 
all the interference of men, is fulfilled. We have to 
wait upon him for all gifts in the Church, which he 
hath set as it hath pleased him. 1 Cor. xii. 18. He 
brings forth Mazzaroth in his season, and guides Arc- 
turus with his sons. 

Canst thou lift up thy voice to the clouds, that 
abundance of waters may cover thee? 

When man can speak to the clouds and bring down 
the rain at his command, then may he have some reason 
to suppose that he can bring down abundance of spirit- 
ual blessings at his will and secure heavenly favors by 
his own works, which the false teachers declare that man 
is able to do. For God has said by Moses, " My doc- 
trine shall drop as the rain" (Deut. xxxii. 2), and by 
Isaiah has expressly compared his word to the coming 
down of the rain in blessing upon the earth, which fully 
accomplishes his purpose. Isa. lv. 11. But Job knew 
20 * 



234 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

that man possesses no such power, but must wait upon 
Him who alone can "make bright clouds" (Zech. x. i), 
and send forth " the early and the latter rain." He is 
therefore reproved for his murmurs. 

Canst thou send lightnings, that they may go and 
say unto thee, Here we are? There is in the flashing 
lightning a more startling exhibition of God's infinite 
power than in the growing blade of grass or the mild 
ray of light, though no more clear to the observance of 
wisdom. The more strikingly his infinite greatness is 
displayed, the more clearly do we see our own weak- 
ness. The lightnings go at his bidding, and each flash 
throughout all the ages of time and all the extent of the 
earth has been exactly timed and directed to fulfill his 
purpose. 

Who hath put wisdom in the inward parts, or who 
hath given understanding to the heart? 

Here we would pause to dwell for a moment upon 
the wonderful mystery of the mind and of the affections 
that is sometimes presented to us ; but we can find no 
language to express the depth and peculiarity of that 
mystery, nor our feelings when it is before us. Thought 
most signally fails when thought is the subject. The 
powers of the mind cannot comprehend themselves, 
whence they came nor how they are set in motion. 
God has given wisdom and understanding to each in 
such degree as he would, and alone comprehends each 
motion and emotion of the mind and heart. Shall 
created wisdom reply against its infinite Creator, or 
presume to judge his work? What humility becomes 
us! 

Who can number the clouds in wisdom, or who 
can stay the bottles of heaven when the dust grow- 



THE ANSWER OF THE LORD. 235 

eth into hardness and the clods cleave fast to- 
gether? 

How can any dare to say that God's eternal decrees 
have not embraced everything and every event? The 
mere fact and manner of his mention of these things 
show them all to be within the scope and perfect con- 
trol of his eternal counsel. From the beginning of 
time, of all the myriads of clouds that have sailed over 
the expanse of the natural heavens, whether wafted by 
the gentle breeze, driven fiercely before the tempest or 
gathered in sombre rest over all the face of the sky, not 
one but was guided by his Almighty wisdom and ful- 
filled his everlasting purpose concerning it. And so 
with the clouds in the spiritual heavens — whether those 
that hide the light from his people, when " he keepeth 
back the face of his throne and spreadeth his cloud 
upon it," or the "bright clouds" which he makes to 
give reviving showers when they are needed — all are 
numbered and guided in wisdom. And who but He 
that has power to open the windows of heaven, break 
up the fountains of the great deep and send floods upon 
the earth, can stay the bottles of heaven when the earth 
suffers under them ? 

Wilt thou hunt the prey for the lion, or Jill the ap- 
petite of the young lions when they couch in their 
dens and abide in their covert to lie in wait? Who 
provideth for the raven his food? When his young 
ones cry unto God, they wander for lack of meat. 

When we think of the unnumbered variety of the an- 
imal creation, of the myriads that roam over the earth, 
fly above in the air and swim in the sea, and remember 
that each that has had even the briefest existence since 
the foundation of the earth has had its supply of food 



236 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

provided by the Almighty, who has had a specific pur- 
pose in the existence of each, we are lost in amazement 
at the omniscience and omnipotence that has kept all in 
view, and provided for all in the remotest wilderness 
and deepest recesses and minutest points of space, as 
well as in the fields where man numbers his flocks and 
herds. Suppose that it were ours to see that all had 
their supply, and our powers were made equal to the 
task, yet would we feel inclined to seek food for the 
venomous reptile or the ravenous beast of prey ? Why, 
we would reason, should we nourish those that would 
destroy us? Yet God sustains them; and here he re- 
bukes Job for asking, " Wherefore do the wicked live, 
become old, yea, are mighty in power?" In asking 
this question, Job asserted a truth which his friends de- 
nied ; yet before God he expressed a murmur by the 
questioning form of the assertion, for which he is now 
reproved. God cares for all. ".He giveth to the beast 
his food, and to the young ravens which cry." Ps. cxlvii. 
9. " He maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the 
good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust." 
Matt. v. 45. 



CHAPTER XXXIX. 

In the closing verses of the last chapter and through- 
out the whole of this, individuals of the animal creation 
are brought to our notice. Each one no doubt has a 
special spiritual significance, but what this may be I 
cannot hope fully to understand. In some cases I may 
suggest an interpretation of the figure which will be 
sustained by the Scriptures, and then we may feel a 



THE ANSWER OF THE LORD. 237 

degree of certainty in regard to its correctness. When 
any part of God's word is necessary to the present com- 
fort and instruction of any of his children, it will be then 
unfolded to them by his Spirit directly or through the 
ministry of his servants. I trust that through this fee- 
ble effort of mine in these pages it may be God's will 
that some ray of light and comfort may be given to 
some of his dear children. » It will be so if his blessed 
Spirit is directing me in this work, as I humbly pray 
that it may. 

I will merely allude to the different beasts and birds 
mentioned in this chapter : 

The wild goats of the rock and the hinds cannot be 
watched over by man as the flocks of his field are, yet 
all their ways are marked out by the Lord and their 
wants supplied. The goat is in one or two places used 
to represent those who shall not inherit life. Matt. xxv. 
33. The hind is frequently used to represent in some 
sense the people of God. Naphtali is compared in the 
blessing of Jacob to " a hind let loose." 

The wild ass may fitly represent the natural state 
and inclination of man, whose house God has made the 
wilderness and the barren land his dwellings. He 
scorneth the multitude of the city — the heavenly Jeru- 
salem where the saints have their dwelling — neither re- 
gar deth he the crying of the driver. No man can tame 
him, bring him in from the wild freedom in which God 
has sent him forth, put upon him the yoke of Christ, 
the restraints of love and spiritual desires, and set him 
in the narrow path of life. The range of the moun- 
tains is his pasture, and he searcheth after every 
green thing — after all earthly pleasures. Israel in her 



238 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

transgressions is said to be " a wild ass used to the wil- 
derness." Jer. ii. 24 ; Hos. viii. 9. 

What is said of the unicorn may bring before the 
mind the great and ungovernable strength of the wild 
passions of men as they are exhibited in the horrid cruel- 
ties of some uncivilized nations, and of some wicked 
rulers who are unrestrained by either fear or affection 
from the course suggested by their cruel or ambitious 
desires. Where these passions bear unrestrained sway, 
we cannot look for deeds of kindness nor repose any 
confidence whatever. Wilt thou trust him because his 
strength is great, or wilt thou leave thy labor to him ? 
Wilt thou believe him, that he will bring home thy 
seed and gather it into thy barn? 

The goodly wings of the peacock well represent the 
foolish vanity of the human heart, and the ostrich is so 
described as to present an emblem of cruelty and for- 
getfulness. God has given her great strength, but has 
withheld wisdom from her. " The daughter of my 
people is become cruel like the ostriches in the wilder- 
ness." Lam. iv. 3. 

Hast thou given the horse his strength? Hast 
thou clothed his neck with thunder? Canst thou 
make him afraid as a grasshopper? The glory of 
his nostrils is terrible. He paweth in the valley and 
rejoiceth in his strength; he goeth on to meet the 
armed men. He mocketh at fear, and is not af- 
frighted; neither turneth he back from the sword. 
The quiver rattleth against him, the glittering spear 
and the shield. He swalloweth the ground with 
ferceness and rage; neither believeth he that it is 
the sound of the trumpet. He saith among the trum- 



THE ANSWER OF THE LORD. 239 

Pets, Ma I ha I and he smell eth the battle afar off^ the 
thunder of the caf tains and the shouting. 

Brief as this description is, so plain and life-like a 
picture could not be given by man in volumes of writ- 
ing of both the horse and the battle-field where his 
mighty strength and fearlessness are displayed. There 
is an element in the description that tells of its spiritual 
meaning. We read that " the Lord of hosts hath vis- 
ited his flock, the house of Judah, and hath made them 
as his goodly horse in the battle." Zech. x. 3. Here is 
evidently the Lord's description of his " goodly horse," 
which represents his servants whom he sends forth into 
the battle armed with the power of his Word. In them- 
selves they are ignorant as the horse, which, with all 
his strength, "is a vain thing for safety." Ps. xxxiii. 17. 
But as his servants or ministers he sends them forth in 
his strength, which they can feel and exert, but can no 
more understand of themselves than the horse can un- 
derstand concerning the great strength he can display. 
While the servant of Christ feels his own weakness and 
declares his insufficiency, as did Paul, yet he has a 
spiritual courage and eagerness for the battle answering 
fully to this description. He may lack natural courage, 
may be the most timid and retiring of men, but when 
God has clothed his neck with the thunder of his word, 
he mocketh at fear and turns not back from the sword 
of his spiritual enemy. He can fight with carnal weap- 
ons no better than before, but with his spiritual weapons 
and spiritual strength he is invincible. " Though a 
host should encamp against me," he says, " what shall 
I fear?" and "rejoicing in the Lord and in the power 
of his might," confident and rejoicing in his strength, he 
goeth on to meet the armed men unchecked, though 



240 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

the quiver of Satan rattleth against him, the glittering 
spear and the shield. His speed is equal to every ne- 
cessity. No power of man is required, nor would be 
competent, to convey or hurry him to the field of battle. 
The Lord, and not man, has prepared him for the work, 
and has given him the swift eagerness that will, under 
his control and direction, bring him to the place de- 
signed and to the face of his enemies at the right time. 
Let the feeblest saint look within himself at the feeling 
with which he regards the truth, at his confidence in it, 
and remember the courageous exaltation of soul with 
which it has sometimes inspired him, making him will- 
ing to declare before a gainsaying world his confidence 
in it, and his assurance that it will prevail over all its 
opposers, and making him sure that the bitterest perse- 
cutions, even to death, could not prevail to turn his soul 
from that confidence and rejoicing, — let him consider 
this feeling of his concerning the truth, and he will 
have an intimation of that which is represented by the 
strength and courage of this goodly horse. With this 
love of the truth and confidence in the Lord, laying 
hold on eternal life, the servants of God fight the good 
fight of faith. 

In the flight of the hawk, stretching her wings to- 
ward the south, the wisdom of God and the limits of 
man's wisdom are seen. 

Doth the eagle mount up at thy co?nmand, and 
make her bed on high? She is a bird of prey, seeking 
it from the crag of the rock, and beholding it afar off . 
Her young ones also suck up bloood, a?id where the 
slain are, there is she. Our Saviour says, after warn- 
ing his disciples of the false prophets who u shall show 
great signs and wonders, insomuch that if it were pos- 



THE ANSWER OF THE LORD. 241 

sible they shall deceive the very elect," " For whereso- 
ever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered 
together." Matt. xxiv. 28 ; Luke xvii. 37. 



CHAPTER XL. 

Moreover the Lord answered yob and said, Shall 
he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct him ? 
He that reproveth God, let him answer it. 

As Job has been murmuring under the mighty hand 
of God, thus contending with him, and reproving him 
for laying his hand so heavily upon one so feeble and 
insignificant, exhibiting the rebellious disposition of our 
poor fallen nature, the Lord has swept before his view 
the wonders of his wisdom and power as displayed in 
the familiar things of nature and in the kingdom of his 
grace. Now, if the sufferer under a sense of sin who 
longs to be holy, considering the ability of God to do 
what he pleased, should let a thought rest upon his 
mind that it would have been better that he should 
have been made and held so as never to have sinned, 
but to have enjoyed happiness for ever in this life, or 
that he should have been taken away in infancy, or that 
he should never have been called into being — all of 
which Job, as many another, has either intimated or 
plainly expressed in the bitterness of his soul — let him 
justify himself if he can in these wishes that are but re- 
proofs to God, being against his way, by answering 
these questions. But Job is overwhelmed and humbled 
by the unanswerable display, and says : Behold, I am 
vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay my hand 
21 Q 



242 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

upon my mouth. Once have I spoken, but I will not 
answer : yea, twice, but I will proceed no farther. 

There is yet more, however, to be displayed before 
him : Then answered the Lord unto fob out of the 
whirlwind and said, Gird up thy loins now like a 
man; I will demand of thee, and answer thou me. 
Wilt thou also disannul my judgment? Wilt thou 
condemn me that thou may est be righteous? 

Shall it be shown by Job's complaints that God's 
ways are not best — that his judgments, either in refer- 
ence to the righteous or the wicked, are to be con- 
demned? How wonderful has been the manner of the 
Lord's answer thus far ! It has been but to display his 
work, and by unanswerable questions to show how far 
his wisdom is beyond the conception of man. Infinite 
wisdom cannot err. 

Heretofore the objects presented in the questions, if 
we have understood anything of their spiritual significa- 
tion, have in some way referred to the " mystery of god- 
liness" — either to the everlasting purpose and creative 
power and wisdom of God, the various subjects connected 
with the Church, or to the natural state of man. Two 
more subjects are to be presented — " the mystery of in- 
iquity" as it appears upon the earth, and the prince of 
darkness. Two more beasts are presented after this 
pause in the answer of the Lord, and but two, which 
are thus separated from all the others. 

Before these beasts are spoken of, Job seems to be 
prepared for the consideration of them and that which 
they represent by the following questions, in which is 
brought to his mind his utter inability to deal with the 
manifestations of satanic pride and wickedness among 
men: 



THE ANSWER OF THE LORD. 243 

Hast thou an arm like God, or canst thou thunder 
with a voice like him ? Deck thyself now with maj- 
esty and excellency, and array thyself with glory and 
beauty. Cast abroad the rage of thy wrath, and be- 
hold every one that is proud and abase him. Look 
upon every one that is proud and bring him low, and 
tread down the wicked in their places. Hide them 
in the dust together, and bind their faces in secret. 
Then will I also confess unto thee that thine own 
right hand can save thee. 

How forcibly by these words are our weakness, and 
littleness, and insignificance, and impotency made to ap- 
pear to us, and how gloriously shines forth in them the 
mighty power of God ! What can we do with pride 
and wickedness? When it rises in our own hearts we 
are at once overcome, unless God arise for our help. 
When it appears against us in our enemies, we may 
cast abroad the rage of our wrath, but it falls impo- 
tently. We cannot even see the wicked or discern 
when evil pride exists, unless God anoint and direct our 
eyes. But it is all before God, and he need but turn 
his eye upon it and it is consumed. " He beheld and 
drove asunder the nations." Hab. iii. 6. He had but 
to look upon the Egyptian host, and Pharaoh in all his 
pride was brought low and the wicked were trodden 
down in their places. Reproof is evidently conveyed 
here for the feeling of haste and fretfulness which Job 
has exhibited while he has repelled the false accusations 
and contended against the false doctrine of his three 
friends. And what Christian but can feel in some de- 
gree the force of the reproof resting upon him? David 
says, "Fret not thyself because of evil-doers." But we 
know that we do often fret, that our human nature often 



244 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

interferes while we contend for the truth against its op- 
posers, and that anxiety and a hasty and even angry 
spirit are often exhibited, as though we felt that it was 
our task to abase their pride and bring them low. We 
can often witness in ourselves the feeling which caused 
Moses at the rock to say, " Must we fetch you water 
out of this rock?" Num. xx. 10. 

What has been already presented in the preceding 
chapter would seem to have most conclusively shown 
the inability of Job to abase pride, tread down the 
wicked and put evil out of existence. But the subject 
is now more fully displayed in its greatness and depth : 

Behold now behetnoth which I made with thee; he 
eateth grass like an ox. 

What particular animal is here intended — whether 
the elephant or hippopotamus, or some species larger 
3'et of which none remain now upon the earth — I do 
not consider it material to inquire. It is no doubt the 
largest and most formidable animal that was created 
upon the earth. The word behemoth literally signifies 
beasts, being plural ; and, considering the peculiarity 
of the description, the fact that it is the Lord who de- 
scribes it, the circumstances and evident typical charac- 
ter of the one addressed, and the place in the general 
subject where it is brought in, it seems clear that it is 
not merely a literal animal to which the attention of 
God's people is thus commanded, but that there is rep- 
resented here the great embodiment of spiritual pride 
and wickedness upon the earth, the organized opposi- 
tion to the ways of God ; the same subject that is vari- 
ously or in parts presented in Revelation by the beasts 
that rose up out of the sea and out of the earth, the 
image of the beast and the great red dragon. 



THE ANSWER OF THE LORD. 245 

The thoughts of the awakened soul are sometimes 
turned with wondering but unanswered inquiry to the 
blind and cruel ignorance of the savage and idolatrous 
races of men, to the shocking inhumanity displayed in 
the rites of their religion. Why should the Creator 
have allowed such things? What must be the feeling 
that possesses them ! How impossible for us to effect 
a change! the impossibility being, we suppose, because 
of the great extent of the evil, the great preponderance 
of the nations where it is. But when we get a view of 
the nature of spiritual pride, perhaps seeing it in our 
own hearts or seeing its manifestation in another, see- 
ing how stupidly perverse and obstinate it is in its na- 
ture, then appears to us the inherent impossibility of 
its overthrow by mortal power. But then again, when 
the light of truth is very clear to us, we behold with 
greater astonishment the same blind and cruel principle 
displayed more hideously in the organizations of men 
professing to be followers of Christ, yet hating and bit- 
terly opposing his truth. Here is "Antichrist," " the 
man of sin," "Mystery, Babylon the great," the em- 
bodiment of the " mystery of iniquity." 

As he is described in the various Scriptures that 
speak of his characteristics and manifestations, so he is 
described here : Lo, now his strength is in his loins 
and his force in the navel of his belly. He moveth 
his tail like a cedar ; the sinews of his stones are 
wrapped together. His bones are as strong pieces 
of brass; his bones are like bars of iron. The vain 
self-confidence and pride of the children of wickedness 
are thus most strongly set forth. David says, " Their 
strength is firm." No man can break it down. In 2 
Thess. ii., Paul also describes him in his proud con- 
21 * 



246 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

fidence and vain exaltation. We look upon him with 
wonder. He is chief of the ways of God. God has 
a purpose in him which is far beyond our power to 
comprehend, and when that purpose shall be fulfilled 
we are told that the Lord shall consume him with the 
spirit of his mouth. 2 Thess. vii. 8. So here we are 
told that He that made him can make his sword to 
approach unto him. Man can only look upon him and 
wait God's time. He must first u fill up the measure 
of his iniquity." The mystery of iniquity must first be 
finished. Job, " the perfect man," is therefore called 
upon to behold him and consider his appearance and 
ways, and to know that he also is within the creative 
and controlling power and wisdom of God, who made 
darkness and evil as well as light and peace (Isa. lv. n), 
who raised up Pharaoh as well as Moses, to make known 
his power. Rom. ix. 17. Which I made with thee. 
The righteous and the wicked in their natural state 
were made together, and in both the "perfect man" 
and " the man of sin" the power of God is made to ap- 
pear. His ways are inscrutable. 

In the description of this beast the contrast between 
the wicked and the righteous appears, although he 
eateth grass like a?z ox, as the false teachers appear to 
worldly view much the same as the true servants of 
God. His strength is in his loins — in himself — while 
the strength of the perfect man is in the Lord. The 
mountains bring him forth food — earthly food — while 
the food of the saint comes down from heaven. He 
lieth under the shady trees, in the covert of the reed 
and fens. The shady trees cover him with their 
shadow; the willows of the brook compass him about. 
So the workers of iniquity are said to work in secret. 



THE ANSWER OF THE LORD. Hi 

Coverts and dark places they choose for their dwellings 
spiritually, while they take counsel together and bring 
forth " their unfruitful works of darkness." " It is a 
shame to speak of those things which are done of them 
in secret." Eph. v. 12. 

The man of God stands trembling before Jordan, the 
river of judgment, or hasteth to flee from the swelling 
of its waves, until God shall come to his help, roll back 
the overflowing tide and show him a pathway through 
the deep waters. But as for this self-confident and pre- 
sumptuous beast, Behold, he drinketh up a river and 
hasteth not; he trusteth that he can draw up yordan 
into his mouth. He taketh it in with his eyes ; his 
nose pierceth through snares. The judgments of God 
are nothing to the false teachers and workers of iniquity. 
They know nothing of that righteous judgment which 
was against God's people, as it is for ever against all 
others, which the death of Christ alone could fulfill for 
his people's deliverance, that they might pass over into 
the land of peace and rest. They blindly believe them- 
selves able to answer all the demands of the law — to 
fulfill its judgments. They never haste, as the right- 
eous do, in fearful apprehension of the overwhelming 
judgments of God, for " there is no fear of God before 
their eyes." They trust they can drink the river of 
judgment dry and get over safely. As Pharaoh in his 
haughty pride and blindness took in the sea with his 
eyes, making light of that which caused Israel to trem- 
ble and cry out in fear, so do they look lightly upon 
judgment, seeing it in all its depth and breadth, as they 
vainly imagine, and feeling sure of their strength to 
meet and pass over it, until suddenly justice and judg- 
ment take hold upon them, and they sink " like lead in 



248 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

the mighty waters" which were divided only for the 
people of God to pass through. 

The snares that beset and perplex the way of the 
righteous do not trouble him. His nose pierceth 
through snares. 



CHAPTER XLI. 

Canst thou draw out leviathan with a hook? 

The great monster of the deep is the last brought to 
the notice of Job. If this wonderful description were 
applied merely to the whale, some parts of it would 
hardly seem appropriate, though the fearful admiration 
with which he inspires the mind is fully expressed 
through this highly figurative language. But there is 
more than a literal fish or serpent, be he never so great, 
presented here. This is " that old serpent, which is 
the devil and Satan," whose abode is in the deep ; the 
great source of all the various manifestations of evil ; u the 
prince of darkness." Here is innate wickedness, con- 
sidered in its own essential being, as a separate thing, 
unaffected by human interests or affections, which seem 
to soften or partially cover its hideous fearfulness as it 
is manifested in the world. Here is hatred of good as 
a distinct principle ; not a passion excited in the human 
breast by the action of another, where there is affection 
that may turn or fear that may hold back its fury, but 
simply the essential principle of hatred and enmity 
against God. 

What an unsearchable mystery is sin ! We have 
wondered concerning its origin, and much more con- 
cerning its essential nature. But all our speculations 






THE ANSWER OF THE LORD. 249 

are in vain. Here is a mystery, a great deep, that can 
be fathomed and surveyed only by the mind of God. 

The tenor of the description does not seem to sustain 
the idea that the prince of darkness is coeval with God, 
and came from without his dominions to wage unsuc- 
cessful war against him ; nor, on the other hand, that 
he was ever in that heaven of eternal glory where the 
glorified saints dwell with their Redeemer. Nor do I 
find such theories in the Scriptures. 

The object of this answer of the Lord seems to be 
to display to Job the infinite greatness of the Almighty 
in power and wisdom, and the inability of mortal intel- 
telligence to find out or judge of his works. " How 
unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past find- 
ing out !" 

Whatever theories we may choose to have concern- 
ing the devil, we must not allow a thought that there 
has ever been an existence or an event that has contra- 
dicted the eternal purpose of God. We must not hold 
a theory or harbor a thought that will trammel in our 
minds the free consideration of God as infinitely before 
all other existence, and as infinitely surrounding all on 
every side, both in presence and existence, and in crea- 
tive and controlling power and wisdom. "Who hath 
directed the Spirit of the Lord, or, being his counselor, 
hath taught him." 

" Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast 
of the field which the Lord God had made." Concern- 
ing the origin of that subtlety, we can no more under- 
stand than we can understand concerning the origin of 
the goodness of God. We are repelled by the bars of 
infinity in wisdom and by a just fear of God from seek- 
ing after such knowledge. 



250 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

We will pause but at a few points in this description, 
though every word is undoubtedly significant. After 
showing by the first few questions how powerless man 
is to deal with this being, to fight against sin and over- 
come iniquity in his own strength, the Lord says to Job, 
Lay thy hand upon him, reme?nber the battle, do no 
more. This battle is that which our Saviour fought, 
wherein he " destroyed him that had the power of death, 
that is the devil," thereby freeing them " who through 
fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage." 
Heb. ii. 14, 15. This battle and victory Isaiah thus 
prophetically declares : "In that day the Lord, with his 
sore and great and strong sword, shall punish leviathan 
the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked ser- 
pent ; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea." 
Isa. xxvii. 1. 

As I have alluded to the popular theory that Satan 
once inhabited the eternal heavens and was cast out for 
rebellion, I will here remark that I believe all those ex- 
pressions of Scripture which speak of there being war 
in heaven, and of Satan being cast out or falling as 
lightning, refer to this battle, this conflict and victory 
of Christ through his death and the deliverance of his 
people from Satan's power, and not to any former war 
that was ever carried on in that blessed abode of the 
righteous where God dwells. Satan had a place in the 
legal heavens ; the children of Belial there went through 
the forms of worship with the children of God. He 
has a place in the world, where he "walks up and down 
and goes to and fro," as we find to our sorrow. But 
when our Saviour arose in triumph, Satan fell from his 
place in the Church or legal heavens, and in her gospel 
form there is found no place for him any more. Rev. 



THE ANSWER OF THE LORD. 251 

xii. *], 8. In the gospel heavens, when we can spirit- 
ually dwell there, we find perfect safety and freedom 
from his annoyance. He only attacks us when we go 
out upon the earth, live after the flesh, start down from 
Jerusalem to Jericho, which is a most unsafe journey 
for a child of God. 

In ourselves we are powerless, yet through Christ we 
are victorious, and remembering the battle, remember- 
ing his death and resurrection, we lay our hands as 
conquerors upon the great enemy in the name of the 
Captain of our salvation, and do no more. It would be 
distrusting or denying the sufficiency of his work to 
take for a moment the doctrine of the world concerning 
salvation, that something is left for us to do. Satan 
would soon swallow us up ; therefore the saints are 
warned and commanded to hold him as conquered in 
the name of the great King, and do no more. 

The idea of the natural man seems to be that Satan, 
as his spirit is manifested in the human heart, can be per- 
suaded and overcome by working upon some imagined 
weakness or kindness. But, Behold, the hope of him 
is in vain; shall not one be cast down even at the sight 
of him? None is so fierce that dare stir him up ; 
who then is able to stand before me? The more we 
have entered into a knowledge of the depths of evil and 
have seen the dark mystery of it, the more have we 
recognized the immeasurable power and infinite majesty 
of God, who holds supreme control over it. Who hath 
prevented me, that I should repay him? Whatsoever 
is under the whole heaven is mine. I will not conceal 
his parts, nor his power, nor his comely proportion. 
And they are fully displayed to those who shall see the 
glory of God and rejoice therein. We pass by the de- 



2«?2 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

scription of his awful strength and firmness, his pride 
in them, and the glaring light and fire that go out of 
his eyes and mouth, which men so greatly mistake for 
the light of truth and heavenly fire, but which are full of 
destruction. 

In his neck remaineth strength, and sorrow is 
turned into joy before him. The sorrows and anguish 
of those with whom he can meet are his joy. To cause 
pain and witness agony are his delight. His essential 
nature, in all its unimagined coldness of cruelty, could 
not be more forcibly expressed : Sorrow is turned into 
joy before him. 

No mortal power can affect him through the inflic- 
tion of pain, for to that he is insensible. The fakes 
of his fesh are joined together; they arefrm in them- 
selves ; they cannot be moved. No word of entreaty 
can be heard, no pity felt \>y him, for his heart is frm 
as a stone; yea, as hard as a piece of the nether mill- 
stone. How awful to think that a principle whose 
nature can be so described can have a lodging-place 
within us ! Yet here is the nature of the spirit of de- 
pravity, of iniquity — " the spirit that now worketh in the 
children of disobedience." This principle is hard and 
cold. It cannot be warmed, cannot be made to feel, 
except to joy in works of evil and to delight in the suf- 
fering it can witness. It is exemplified in all those evil 
and wicked passions that lurk within us, upon any one 
of which, if we look abstractly and fix our attention for 
a while, we shall see the hardness of the nether mill- 
stone. It is manifested by the self-righteous Pharisee 
in contemning the poor Publican, as well as by Herod 
in slaying the children ; by the zealous Saul in perse- 
cuting the saints, as well as by Cain in slaving his 



THE ANSWER OF THE LORD. 253 

brother ; and by the saints themselves, if left to them- 
selves for a moment unprotected by grace against the 
influence of this monster of the deep. Only God has 
power over this spirit to break it down and destroy it, 
as he does in all his saints. Man is powerless to fight 
it alone. The sword of him that layeth at him can- 
not hold: the spear, the dart, nor the habergeon. 
Why should he not esteem iron as straw, count sling- 
stones and darts as stubble, and laugh at the shaking 
of a spear, when pain is his delight, when sharp stones 
are under him, and for his pleasure he spreadeth sharp- 
pointed things upon the mire? Man cannot make 
him flee, for upon the earth there is not his like, who 
is made without fear. 

Many of the expressions referred to, which could by 
no means apply to the whale or serpent literally, plainly 
suggest a spiritual application, and show that we are 
correct in regarding this as a figure of that mighty 
monster, the " prince of darkness," " the prince of the 
power of the air," the enemy of God and his people, 
from whom spring all sin, all " spiritual wickedness in 
high places," all pride of iniquity and blasphemy ; and 
the last expression concerning him fully establishes the 
application of the figure : He beholdeth all high things; 
he is a king over all the children of pride. 

Great and marvelous is the power of our Saviour, 
which is displayed in the destruction of this enemy to 
the peace of his people, and in granting them the fruits 
of that victory, by subduing their evil passions under 
the reign of his grace and freeing them from the power 
and dominion of sin- by faith in his all-prevailing name. 
" Thanks be unto God, who giveth us the victory 
through our Lord Jesus Christ !" 
22 



XX. 

THE HUMILITY, RESTORATION AND EXALTATION 
OF JOB. 



CHAPTER XLII. 

Then Job answered the Lord cuid said, I know 
that thou canst do everything, and that no thought 
can be withholden fro?7i thee. Who is he that hideth 
cowisel without knowledge? Therefore have I ut- 
tered that I u?ider stood not ; things too wonderful 
for me, which I knew not. Hear, I beseech thee, 
and I will speak; I will demand of thee, and declare 
thou u7ito 7ne. I have heard of thee by the hearing 
of the ear; but now mine eyes seeth thee; wherefore 
I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes. 

The trial is ended, and its effect is seen in the humil- 
ity of Job and in his increased and abiding confidence 
in God. He will speak, but no longer with a desire to 
declare unto God, but that the Lord may be pleased to 
declare unto him. Softly bowed down, he is willing 
to acknowledge his self-abhorrence for having uttered 
selfish wishes and complaints in his blindness. Let us 
carefully observe the first expression of his humility ; 
and if there has arisen in our minds any objecting 
thought while considering any of the subjects presented, 
any desire to deny that God has absolutely decreed all 

254 



HUMILITY AND EXALTATION OF JOB. 255 

things, or to rebel against that truth and ask why he 
should have ordained this or that, or why he yet finds 
fault, since none have resisted his will (Rom. ix. 19), or 
whether he is not unrighteous to take vengeance if all 
things are foreordained (Rom. iii. 5), may all such re- 
bellious thoughts be hushed and destroyed, and we be 
enabled to say with Job, I know that thou canst do 
everything, and that no thought can be withholden 
from thee. 

I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear. 
This is when we hear the truth and believe it, but 
are not possessed with its power, as was probably the 
case with Job while Elihu spoke. When the Lord 
speaks out of the whirlwind the clouds of sense are 
broken and dispersed, and we experience rather than 
hear, and are wrapped in the glory of his presence. 
Then we can say, Now mine eye seeth thee. The Lord 
has only asked questions and presented wonders, not 
one of which Job could answer or understand, and yet 
he says, Now mine eye seeth thee. He sees him in the 
majesty of his eternal power and the solitary glory of 
his underived wisdom, before all worlds, inhabiting 
eternity. " Behold, the nations are as a drop of a 
bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the bal- 
ance ; behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little 
thing." 

We may hear a man described with the utmost partic- 
ularity, but we do not know him yet ; we only know the 
description, and in speaking to another of him we must 
use the words we have heard, and if we vary from them 
we cannot tell but we vary from the truth. But when 
we have seen his face ourselves, we may use our own 
words in describing it, and may vary and enlarge with 



256 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

safety whenever we speak, for the face is ever before 
our mind's eye. So when God has revealed himself to 
our souls we see him in his own light, and have daily 
something new to say of the wonders of his beauty and 
glory which we see in our daily experience. The false 
teacher, whenever he leaves the express words of Scrip- 
ture, speaks falsely, for he knows not of what he speaks ; 
and even in using the Scriptures wrests them and ham 
dies them deceitfully, or so as to deceive. But the ser- 
vant of God, daily beholding as in a glass his glory 
(2 Cor. iii. 18), which shines in the face of Jesus Christ, 
is enabled to bring forth for the comfort of his people 
things new and old. With this vital knowledge of God, 
we always experience the self-abhorrence and repent- 
ance expressed by Job. 

The Lord now said to Eliphaz, My wrath is kindled 
against thee and against thy two friends, for ye have 
not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant 
yob hath. They are commanded, therefore, to go to 
Job and offer up for themselves sacrifices. And my 
servant shall pray for you, for him will I accept, lest 
I deal with you after your folly, in that ye have not 
spoken of me the thing that is right, like my servant 
yob. So they did as the Lord commanded them; the 
Lord also accepted yob. We do not learn here that 
they received forgiveness of sin and acceptance as God's 
children, but that through the intercession of Job they 
were spared from being dealt with after their folly. 
For the sake of the Church, God spares for a long time 
men of iniquity, enduring " with much long-suffering 
the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction ;" and the saints 
are taught to pray for all men, as Stephen prayed for 
his enemies, " Lord, lay not this sin to their charge." 



HUMILITY AND EXALTATION OF JOB. 257 

And the Lord turned the captivity of yob when he 
had prayed for his friends ; also 'the Lord gave Job 
twice as much as he had before. 

Such an expression is here used in reference to the 
healing of Job's afflictions as is employed in reference 
to the restoration and exaltation of Zion, of which he is 
a type. The people of God were carried away into 
captivity, reduced very low and humbled under suffer- 
ing. The prophets describe the degradation of Zion, 
her bitter complaints under the cruel oppression of her 
adversaries, who are but the hand of God, and her hum- 
ble acknowledgments of the righteousness of God's 
judgments. But her release and exaltation under the 
gospel dispensation are also declared and spoken of as 
a turning of her captivity, and it is known in the expe- 
rience of all the saints when they are brought into the 
liberty of the gospel. " When the Lord turned again 
the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream. 
Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our 
tongue with singing ; then said they among the heathen, 
The Lord hath done great things for them." Ps. cxxvi. 
1, 2. 

So it was with Job when the Lord turned his captiv- 
ity. Then came there unto him all his brethren, and 
all his sisters, and all they that had been his acquaint- 
ance before; and they bemoaned him and comforted 
him over all the evil that the Lord had brought upon 
hi?7i; every man also gave him a piece of money, and 
every one an ear-ring of gold. How similar is the de- 
scription of the exaltation of Zion ! — " The Gentiles shall 
come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy 
rising. Lift up thine eyes round about and see ; all 
they gather themselves together, they come to thee. 
22* R 



258 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

Thy sons also shall come from far, and thy daughters 
shall be nursed at thy side.' , Isa. lx. 3, 4. For Zion, 
like Job, had been desolated of her children, but the 
Lord had promised that they should come again in the 
end from the land of the enemy. Jer. xxxi. 15-17. The 
abundance of the riches that should flow to Zion in her 
exaltation is represented by multitudes of camels and 
flocks of Kedar, with gold and silver and incense, 
brought by the dromedaries of Midian and Epha and 
Sheba and the ships of Tarshish. "And the sons of 
strangers shall build up thy walls, and their kings shall 
minister unto thee." The abasement also of Eliphaz 
and his two friends before Job is answered in the rep- 
resentation of Zion. " The sons also of them that af- 
flicted thee shall come bending unto thee, and all they 
that despised thee shall bow themselves down at the 
soles of thy feet." Job had complained that all his ac- 
quaintance and inward friends abhorred and despised 
him, but now they are bowing before him. 

So the Lo?'d blessed the latter end of yob ?nore than 
the begtn?zing. And so the exceeding glory of the 
Church under the gospel dispensation is set forth. But 
though his goods were increased, the number of his 
children remained the same, for he had also seven sons 
a?id three daughters. Whether his children were 
really slain, as the devil's messenger said, it is not ne- 
cessary to know, for we have only to do with the spir- 
itual signification, and to the last the figure is main- 
tained. The children of Zion are the same under all 
dispensations, never increased or diminished, being all 
written and numbered in the Lamb's book of life before 
the foundation of the world. 



XXI. 



CONCLUSION. 

Ye have heard of the patience of fob, and have 
seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very piti- 
ful and of tender mercy. James v. n. 

We may possibly have sometimes wondered that Job 
should have been set forth as an example of patience, 
since that word, as commonly used, signifies the quality 
of enduring affliction calmly, without murmuring or 
fretfulness, while Job was full of complaints. I trust, 
however, we have been enabled by the blessed Spirit 
during these contemplations to understand in some de- 
gree wherein his patience consisted, and to see the end 
of the Lord in his trial. 

The primary meaning of the word patience is endu- 
rance, continuance ; and this we shall find to be its scrip- 
tural signification. When our Saviour told his disciples 
of the fearful persecutions they should endure before his 
coming and the end of the world, he assured them that 
not one hair of their heads should fall to the ground, 
and said, u In your patience possess ye your souls." 
Luke xxi. 19. In the book of Revelation we find this 
word twice defined in a most remarkable manner. 
First, in connection with the account of the beast that 
rose out of the sea, who spoke blasphemies, and had 
power to make war with the saints and overcome them, 

259 



260 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

and who should be worshiped by all that dwell on the 
earth, save those whose names are written in the book 
of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the 
world : " He that leadeth into captivity shall go into 
captivity ; he that killeth with the sword must be killed 
with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith 
of the saints." Rev. xiii. 10. Second, in connection 
with the proclamation of the angel concerning the pun- 
ishment that should be inflicted upon the worshipers 
of the beast: "And the smoke of their torment ascend- 
eth up for ever and ever ; and they have no rest day 
nor night who worship the beast and his image, and 
whosoever receiveth the mark of his name. Here is the 
patience of the saints; here are they that keep the com- 
mandments of God and the faith of Jesus." xiv. u, 12. 
In these two passages and their connections we find 
but particular illustrations of what our Saviour foretold 
in the Scripture first referred to concerning the blas- 
phemous deceivers and persecutors that should be en- 
countered by his disciples. "The sword" and "cap- 
tivity" represent the exercise of worldly power. The 
nations and powers of the earth, fighting with carnal 
weapons and leading into captivity, are themselves mu- 
tually destroyed in this way ; while the saints, against 
whom their bitterest hatred is directed, though their 
bodies may be bound or killed, are not harmed as saints. 
Not one hair of their heads falls to the ground. They 
cannot fight with the sword nor offer carnal resistance, 
but " they overcome by the blood of the Lamb." Their 
continuance in the truth and in hope while enduring 
opposition is patience, and their victory is their faith ; 
for " This is the victory that overcometh the world, 
even your faith." 1 John v. 4. 



CONCLUSION. 261 

The worshipers of the beast the smoke of whose 
torment ascendeth up for ever and ever, and who have 
no rest day nor night, represent all followers of false 
religion and opposers of the truth, who cannot rest, but 
" like the troubled sea cast up mire and dirt" (Isa. lvii. 
20), and of whom God has said, " These are a smoke 
in my nose, a fire that burneth all the day." Isa. lxv. 5. 
Though false religion bears a most flattering appear- 
ance to the worldly mind, and though its teachers have 
all worldly arts of persuasion to employ in extending it, 
presenting the glory of the kingdoms of this world to 
attract men, yet it is not possible for them to deceive 
the elect (Matt. xxiv. 24), whose names are written in 
the Lamb's book of life. These see the delusion be- 
cause they have the light of life. Here is the patience 
and the faith of the saints. 

Patience, then, in its scriptural signification, is a 
quality peculiar to the saints. It is a quality developed, 
or, we might say, brought into being, by contact with 
suffering. The hardness of iron is manifested by heavy 
strokes of the hammer, the purity of gold is exhibited 
by the fire. By this contact with destructive and tar- 
nishing influences there is developed in these metals 
the distinct quality of endurance. So the power of 
God's truth in the soul, the perfection of his work with- 
in his people, is tried by contact with that which will 
destroy anything else but his word and work, and thus 
endurance or patience is developed. So we are told 
that " tribulation w 7 orketh patience," though only in the 
saints ; false professions are manifested by it, as the 
counterfeit of gold is destroyed by the action of the fire. 

As patience implies a hope and expectation of future 
deliverance and comfort, so it belongs to the believer in 



262 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

his pilgrimage state. His hope enters into that within 
the veil, and cannot be destroyed. His expectation 
looks to the coming of Jesus, and cannot be cut off. 
He has known the truth, and it can never be unknown. 
He has seen the light of the Sun of Righteousness, and 
it shall never depart from him. Now let the sword of 
persecution come against him ; can it destroy that hope, 
even though it kill the body, since its life is not in this 
world, but in that which is to come? 

Let false teachers gather around with their vanities 
and delusions ; can they make him believe contrary to 
what his eyes have seen and his hands have handled of 
the word of life? 1 John i. 1. Though through flattery 
or fear working upon his fleshly feelings they should 
cause his lips to speak falsely for his heart, as Peter's 
did, and so bring upon him the sharp stings of a 
wounded conscience, still the denial of his lips would 
be rebuked by the truth in the heart, and his patience 
would yet remain. 

But we are full of doubts about this work within us, 
whether it is truly the work of God, whether it will en- 
dure to the end, and whether we shall not lose our hope 
and crown. These doubts and fears are the tempta- 
tions of Satan. He is ever present thus, or endeavors 
to be, when the sons of God come to present themselves 
before the Lord, declaring, through their fears and 
doubts, to God's face that they have some worldly and 
selfish motive for their service, and that extreme earthly 
loss and suffering would cause their faith to fail, their 
service to be discontinued and their hope to be swal- 
lowed up in the black gulf of despair. But the Lord 
has shown us in the trial of Job how Satan is answered 
and overcome, by allowing all the worldly evils and 



CONCLUSION. 263 

spiritual trials that Satan has caused us to fear to be 
brought upon us, and all his delusive doctrine to be 
raised up against us. The lies of Satan are thus mani- 
fested to us, for we cannot let go our hope nor make 
ourselves love false doctrine. He does all he can. 
When earthly possessions and pleasures are taken from 
us, he tempts us to turn away from a God who deals so 
harshly with us. But we know that we have no right 
to claim good at the hands of God rather than evil, and 
so the tempter fails. Then he brings out to our view 
our corruptions of the flesh, causes them to stare upon 
us, and then taunts us because we dare to hope. And 
here let us notice in what consists that great temptation 
from which God has promised to deliver us. He has 
said that with every temptation he will make a way of 
escape that we may be able to bear it. 1 Cor. x. 13. 
Now, if the temptation here meant were, when we were 
tempted to transgress in any way then should we ever 
yield, we must give up any claim to this promise, since 
we had not escaped. But the temptation is such as is 
illustrated in the case of Job as a type. Through the 
wiles of Satan we transgress in thought or word or 
deed, speaking as a follower of the meek and lowly 
Jesus should not, and acting as does not become the 
gospel of Christ. Thus our depravity and corruptions 
of the flesh are brought out and manifested to our 
view, and perhaps in the sight of others. The trans- 
gression may be more or less great in the sight of the 
world. It may be only an unguarded word uttered in 
anger, which worldly men would count as nothing, or 
a denial of the faith through fear of man, for which the 
world would praise us ; or it may be what men would 
esteem a greater transgression. Or at a time when .we 



264 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

are not conscious of any present transgression, and 
when none could be marked against us by any man, we 
may be so made to feel the burden of our depravity of 
nature, may be so made "to possess the iniquities of 
our youth," may have our secret sins so set to our view 
in the light of God's countenance, that our condition, 
as we feel it, is just like that of Job according to his 
bitterest and strongest descriptions of it. Now comes 
the real time of temptation. Bereft of all worldly en- 
joyments, perhaps with no outward sign of God's 
favor, and with our sins and unworthiness all mani- 
fested to us, filling our minds with anguish and self- 
abhorrence, and making us feel as though we are as a 
lamp despised, as though all must see us as we see our- 
selves, and so scorn us, Satan tempts us to give up our 
hope and turn from our trust in God. Our old nature 
tells us, as the wife of Job did, to do so. We feel the 
power of the temptation most bitterly. No words can 
fully express the agony of mind under it. We have to 
say with Job, " My stroke is heavier than my groaning." 
Under the almost insupportable burden, hedged in on 
every side, we have in the secret of our souls longed 
to die, and wondered why light should be given to one 
who is in such bitterness that he longs for death as for a 
hid treasure, and murmuringly and pleadingly by turns 
we have in our inmost thoughts asked God to take us 
away. For we say to ourselves, or Satan says to us, 
What a shame and reproach to your God for so vile a 
sinner to pretend to be his child ! And this temptation, 
the sorest that ever came upon a poor sinner, is not left 
upon us for a moment only and then removed, but it is 
continued from day to day through the false doctrine 
that Satan causes to be preached to us. This peculiar 



CONCLUSION. 265 

temptation extends through, and is an element in, all 
the doctrine of the world. Now that we are so self- 
abased and miserable, it is the time for that trial to 
come. Our brethren, as false teachers persist in call- 
ing themselves while they have any hope of gaining 
us, gather about, misjudge our case, condemn where 
condemnation does not belong, reproach unjustly, heap 
contempt upon us for pretending to hope without 
doing something to cleanse ourselves and make our- 
selves acceptable to God by our good works, and then 
try to force upon us the absolute necessity of their doc- 
trine. All this is Satan's temptation, and it is continued 
from day to day so long as God's face is hidden from 
us. The Lord having made darkness, all the beasts of 
the forest have come forth to terrify us to death. Ps. 
civ. 20. They profess to be friends and to desire to 
comfort us, but their tongues are " sharp swords," and 
their bitter words are " as arrows shot out." Satan is 
most busy now, though he appears to be out of sight. 
He rouses up our fears and fretfulness and murmurings 
within, and keeps up the fire of persecution from with- 
out. He tempts us to give up our belief in that doc- 
trine which is foolishness to the wise of this world and 
a stumbling-block to worldly religion ; and if this were 
not the Lord's work within us, or if the Lord's work 
could fail, we should yield and commence upon the 
system of man's work. But the truth never was more 
clear to the poor sinner than when he feels most un- 
worthy. He tempts us with inward fears and outward 
declarations of our friends that God has become our 
enemy, and that he really hates us. And if the Lord's 
work could fail we should sink in helpless and endless 
despair. But God has put a word within us, and Satan 



266 THE TRIAL OF JOB. 

cannot bring us so low as to drown the voice of that 
word. He cannot prevent our saying in the last ex- 
tremity, " Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him." 
Christ has prayed for each of his children, as he did 
for Peter, that when Satan has them to sift them as 
wheat their faith shall not fail. The Lord will try his 
people as gold and refine them as silver. He will keep 
them in the fire until the dross is thoroughly removed. 
He will reprove their rebellious murmurings by the voice 
of his servants and by his own all-penetrating voice 
out of the whirlwind ; he will show them that they are 
not less worthy of his love when they see their own 
corruptions and are covered with shame and self-loath- 
ing, than when those corruptions are hidden from their 
view and they are self-complacently at rest — that his 
love is not theirs because of any goodness or beauty in 
them, but that he has loved them in Christ with an 
everlasting love, having chosen them in him before the 
foundation of the world, that they should be holy and 
without blame before him in love. When they are 
tempted to think that now certainly they can hope no 
longer, because they are so vile and have wandered so 
far that they can never claim or receive his favor again, 
he will manifest a way through Christ for their escape. 
They shall endure to the end through the power of the 
truth. They shall be kept by the power of God through 
faith unto salvation, and they shall finally be brought to 
the shores of everlasting deliverance, to the praise of 
the riches of his grace. For he is very pitiful and of 
tender mercy, and his faithfulness cannot fail ; and 
though he speak against his chosen in their backslid- 
ings and through their trial, yet does he earnestly re- 
member them still. Jer. xxxi. 18-20. 






CONCLUSION. 267 

The admonitions and reproofs of Elihu, correspond- 
ing with those of our Saviour and his apostles, are given 
to the saints for their comfort. They are to restrain 
their feet from the way of evil and keep their tongue 
from speaking guile. They are so to order their walk 
and conversation as to adorn the doctrine they delight 
in and honor the God they adore. They are to let pa- 
tience have her perfect work. There is somewhere 
within us, since first we hoped in Christ, a calm and 
serene certainty of final deliverance into eternal joy. 
This divine assurance is in some deep and secret recess 
of our being — not always within the scope of our con- 
sciousness, not easily kept in our wavering, unsteady 
sight in time of trouble, but is like some faint star in 
the infinite depth of heaven that now dimly appears, 
and now seems to recede from our view into the fathom- 
less depth. But it is always there, and always steadily 
influences us. In the deepest darkness and bitterest 
anguish and amid the most harassing fears it is there 
yet. It is the certainty of the faith of the Son of God. 
It is that principle by which he saw through the dark- 
ness of death and beheld the joy that was set before him. 
It is the patience of the saints. Tranquil and quiet, it 
looks on while we groan in sorrow and pain, sees us 
tossed to and fro with fears and sinking with self-abhor- 
rence, and knows that all is for our good and God's glory. 
When we lose all sight of the way, and cannot possibly 
see how we can escape, that calm certainty is there. 
This is patience. When this shall act outwardly upon 
our lives, then we shall cease to murmur ; shall go se- 
renely through darkness ; shall rejoice in tribulation ; 
shall be meek and humble before God in word and ac- 
tion, and mild with our fellow-men ; shall walk softly 



268 



THE TRIAL OF JOB. 



in the bitterness of our souls and endure chastisement 
willingly ; shall boldly fight against all error, yet an- 
swer our opposers with no railing accusation nor desire 
to take vengeance on our enemies. Thus we shall let 
patience have her perfect work. For here we have 
only to endure and wait, calmly reposing upon the 
faithful word of God. 

Thus wisdom points out her ways to her children, in 
which they shall find pleasantness and peace. But let 
them take heed also that they give no place to false 
suggestions of Satan that for their correct walk they 
are to receive eternal life as a reward. Let them rather 
contemplate continually the view that God has given 
to their faith of the Church complete in all her mem- 
bers, always perfect and upright in her glorious Head, 
finally delivered from all her trials and all her enemies, 
and exalted to shine in superlative excellence and glo- 
rious beauty, fair as the moon, clear as the sun and ter- 
rible as an army with banners. 

The end of the Lord is accomplished in the trial of 
Job and of all his children. In sweet humility we are 
made to submit ourselves to his will. Then we rise up 
in his strength, and receive an abundant entrance into 
his everlasting kingdom. We have contemplated the 
endurance of affliction. But oh how sweet, how blessed 
when the mind is allowed to dwell upon, the rapturous 
delights of life for evermore ! to receive the soft impres- 
sions of an abiding peace in God and joy in the Holy 
Ghost ! to contemplate the heavens of eternal glory, 
never more to be clouded, and dwell in the light of 
God ! Then the soul becomes as a watered garden, 
fresh and fragrant with joy and praise. 

If we have yet more trials to endure, and must now 



CONCLUSION. 269 

turn back again to darkness and warfare and sorrow, 
let us endure patiently, knowing that the trial of our 
faith is more precious than of gold that perisheth, and 
that the Lord, who works all things for our good, will 
not withdraw his mercy and loving-kindness from us. 
Let us quietly and trustfully wait the time of his blessed 
and final appearing. It will be only a few more days, 
and then our weary, toilsome way will close in unend- 
ing rest, every sorrow give place for ever to unspeak- 
able joy, and all the mists and shadows that have hung 
about us here upon the earth be lost in everlasting 
glory. 



THE END. 



r, > 



I u 



